Find workable city public transport

What you need to know:

  • The issue: Public transport
  • Our view: A big percentage of Kampala residents will have to choose between working to pay transport and simply giving up on their jobs. This is something that should concern the government.

After more than two months of closure, the government finally allowed public transport back onto our roads. For the majority of urban dwellers who had been forced to stay home, June 4 was supposed to be a day when they would finally go back to their jobs, thanks to the availability of public transport.

But this has not happened. A shortage of public transport vehicles and unbearable traffic jam that have been around since private cars were allowed back onto the roads and the resulting high fares mean many urban dwellers are still cooped up at home.

According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, half of the working population in Uganda’s urban centres earn less than Shs222,000 per month. If you live in places such as Nansana, Kiwatule, Gayaza, Ggaba and Bweyogerere, this is about the same amount of money you will spend on moving to and from the city centre over a period of one month.

This means that a big percentage of Kampala residents will have to choose between working to pay transport or simply giving up on their jobs. This is something that should concern the government, since the food distribution debacle must have shown them that they are incapable of taking care of the basic needs of ordinary Ugandans.

But instead of trying to facilitate the movement of Ugandans so that they can work, authorities such as the Ministry of Works and Transport and the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) used the lockdown and the Covid-19 restrictions to implement new regulations that do not fit the times.

Once the President decided to halve the carrying capacity of existing buses and mini-buses, KCCA and the ministry of Works should have focused on increasing the number of big vehicles by talking to Uganda Revenue Authority so that some of the Pioneer Buses that have been lying idle at Namboole stadium could get back on the road.

This is also the time when government agencies should lend some of their buses to the public.
Finding ways to increase availability of public transport would also reduce traffic jam. As we have learnt over the years, public cars increase during the time when parents are taking children to school. That is because many people who would normally use public transport to reduce their costs are forced to drive.

Now that there are no children going to school, the traffic jam should be limited. But the reduction in public transport and the high fares mean that everyone, who can afford it, is being forced to drive a private car. This in part explains why Kampala is facing day-long traffic jam.

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