Cable Cars in Kampala?

 

 By Arthur Mwenkanya Katabalwa                              

According to a The Daily Monitor article, Dr Jürgen Perschon, the executive director of European Institute for Sustainable Transport (Eurist), a German based non-profit organisation, said the Kampala setting –characterised with dense population, limited space for road network expansion, the only option that can decongest and ease traffic flow in the Central Business District is developing ropeways networks.

A deceptively quiet Yusuf Lule Road this morning.

“Unlike other proposed transport systems such as Bus Rapid Transport, Trams and railways that require space for expansion, the cable cars are independent from the existing infrastructure and traffic. The system requires very little urban space and can therefore access high-densely areas, which other transport means can’t,” he explained according to The Daily Monitor.

 

I don't know whether the said Dr Jurgen Perschon has ever stood at the junction between Kalungi Road and Bukasa Road in the morning waiting for a taxi. Maybe that was when he got the Eureka moment that Kampala needs cable cars. But the residents of the immediate area first of all want a road which is passable. This will make the taxis run on time. The residents also want the Chinese construction company CCCC to work with National Water so that they don't pull up the water and sewage pipes every time they take one of their massive tractors through. The residents also want CCCC to make sure that they pour some water on the road because the dust churned up on a daily basis has completely logged their lungs. The residents near this junction want water to wash their dust covered bodies and mop their houses. Not a cable car system to Kampala.

You see the problem with "experts" is that they look at models, make a few calculations and then they think that they have come up with a brilliant idea. Cable cars are nice. They are interesting to travel in but incorporate them in a mass transit system? I doubt that wisdom. These models have traffic moving in a seemly way. Put a taxi in the mix and it is all so different.

 

Some expert decided it was wise to peg the end of the Entebbe expressway to the Northern by "path". The Northern bypass is now nearly operating to capacity at the Busega end and this is before we add traffic heading to Entebbe. So at a point in the near future, we will have all traffic heading to the west plus a lot of the traffic heading to Entebbe congregate near Busega. A Muganda will then say; "Olyooke olabe akatogo."

 

The government of Uganda worked out something pretty quickly which has worked for Kampala. All the trunk roads into the city are good. And even those that are not repaired have been earmarked for development. There are bottlenecks into the city. Kireka for example is atrocious. Don't even try Nateete, Busega, Kyengera. The traffic snarls up for miles on end. Entebbe road when that school in Kitende has a function is biblical in nature. Anyone going to the airport may as well rebook their flights. But on closer inspection on why this happens is the massive increase in population and the unregulated exit and entry points onto major highways. Other than that, all these roads rush traffic to the outskirts of Kampala then the trouble begins.

 

The doctor says that Kampala doesn't have the space to expand the road network. Wait, before we even dream of expanding the road network let us develop and maintain those that exist. Last night I drove behind Nakumat Oasis in Kampala past Centenary park. I couldn't believe that this was a road in the centre of a capital city. It was incredibly bad.There is space for Kampala to expand. Our problem is the land question. Since most of the land isn't in public ownership, expansion becomes very difficult and cumbersome. Everyone who has the money has built their own houses to their own specifications. Only recently have I had of some regulation on things like location of factories. In Muyenga, the use of corrugated iron sheets for roofing has been banned in some areas. But the transport network in Kampala needs to develop and improve on the available assets. Someone has to critically look at the traffic problem in the city which is so bad it is choking the economy. We may need cable cars in the future. But at the moment they are not the answer to Kampala's traffic jam. It is the road network that is the problem because it is no longer fit for purpose.