Govt should sort out traffic jam menace

The traffic jam challenge in Uganda, especially in and around Kampala, seems to be intensifying. Unlike in the past where traffic lockdown was linked mainly to the rush hours, the congestion today is experienced nearly the entire day.
Some people attribute the lockdown today to the increase in the number of vehicles on our roads. According to the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) estimates, there are 635,656 vehicles in Uganda today, an increase from 50,102 in 1991. While this is true, the narrative tells just part of the story.
The problem of the ever constant traffic lockdown in Kampala is having a huge toll not only on the national economy, but also on families and individuals’ incomes. It is inconceivable that in a country like Uganda that is pursuing an ambitious goal of attaining a middle income status by 2020, the transport network that links majority of labour to the country’s main commercial and administrative centre, Kampala, should be bogged down due to long and winding traffic jams.
While employers, both in public and private sector, require employees to report to work at 8am daily, many workers find it hard to make it in time due to hold ups in traffic jam. This impacts on both entity and individual productivity and performance.
Services are delivered behind schedule due to unintended reduction of man-work hours per day. In extreme cases, employees get fired for failure to regularly report to work on in time. Businesses dealing in perishables such as milk, juice, etc, make losses as they fail to reach the market on time. Trouble is, traffic jam stamps a mark of uncertainty in the country’s economy, a crucial factor that are instructive to local and foreign investors. Yet in spite of this gigantic problem, the government doesn’t seem to make fundamental intervention to address the issue.
While traffic police efforts to monitor and regulate the traffic flow is welcome, still there are many issues that need to be addressed. Besides filling potholes at broken sections of the road, there is urgent need to expand roads countrywide, many of which are too narrow to handle the increased traffic.
The boda boda riders factor also calls for urgent attention. While past attempts to register and streamline boda boda operations have come to note, the authorities should not relent otherwise they will continue to be a menace on our roads leading traffic jams.
Besides, the government should ban the importation of used cars older than five years so as to reduce the number of vehicles on our roads.

The issue: Traffic jam
Our view: Government should ban the importation of used cars older than five so as to reduce the number of vehicles on our roads.