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How the 30km/h speed limit will affect motorists
The new traffic regulation requires drivers on highways to race at a maximum speed of 80km/h and slow down to 30km/h while passing through townships on paved highways, or face a penalty of Shs200,000 for violation.
What you need to know:
- The old traffic rules allowed one to drive at 100km/h on a highway and 50km/h in community-congested areas such as trading centres, markets, schools and hospitals.
Motorists and transport operators have criticised the rollout of the new Express Penalty Scheme (EPS), saying it will create more road-related problems than it intends to solve. The new traffic regulation requires drivers on highways to race at a maximum speed of 80km/h and slow down to 30km/h while passing through townships on paved highways, or face a penalty of Shs200,000 for violation. Mr Charles Ddombo, a taxi driver, who plies the 45-kilometre Kampala-Entebbe highway, says in the wee hours of the morning, when the road is less busy, he uses 40 minutes to cover the 45-kilometre distance, but with the new traffic rules, he would be forced to use one-and-half hours on the stretch.
“This doesn’t make business sense at all because if I have planned to take two shifts a day and then rest, I will be forced to take one trip or drive late into the night, which is even riskier driving at that snail pace,” Mr Ddombo said. The old traffic rules allowed one to drive at 100km/h on a highway and 50km/h in community-congested areas such as trading centres, markets, schools and hospitals. But with the new regulations, Mr Mustafa Mayambala, a leader within one of the taxi operators and a veteran driver on one of the highways, says one will have to use more than seven hours to drive from Kampala to the Busia border, regardless of the time of the day or volume of traffic.
Fear of traffic jam
Generally, the Kampala-Jinja highway, which is one of the busiest roads to the Kenyan border, has about 11 urban centres that would force a driver to move at 30km/h on the 240km stretch. Mr Dismas Baterana, a taxi driver who plies Kampala City routes, between the city centre at Mini Price shopping centre to Ntinda, a suburb on the eastern side, says the speed limits of 30km/h will create more gridlock on the road. “We have been regulating speed in many areas, but just imagine you are on Yusuf Lule Road and with no car ahead but you have to drive at that awkward speed. Won’t that cause traffic jams or even accidents?” Mr Baterana said. “The delayed travel times impact on the cost of the trip to the citizens and the quality of life lived. The high travel costs also affect the prices of several products and services the citizens need. There has been a massive uproar from the road travelers and haulers inclined to the congestion on the roads around Kampala,” he adds.
Date with Works ministry
Meanwhile, Mr Rashid Ssekindi, one of the leaders of taxi operators, says they have scheduled a meeting with the Ministry of Works to express their dissatisfaction with the new speed limits. “Our cars will be driving in strong gears which means the consumption of fuel will be high and yet very slow in terms of speed. If they don’t listen to us, we shall have no choice but let the taxi drivers go on with their peaceful demonstration about the same,” Mr Ssekindi said last evening.
Time wasted
A 2022 Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) mobility report estimated that more than 24,000 man-hours are lost in traffic jams each year. This translates into about 90 minutes a day and 52 days every year due to congestion. The report further alludes to the National Road Safety Report 2010 which indicated at the time that “peak hours – given that half of the 375,324 vehicles registered in 2008 are in Kampala, and each uses a minimum of one litre of petrol in traffic jam every day, at Shs3,500 per litre, this translates into losses of more than Shs500m.
