Blanket 50kph rule will not work

Wallace Kantai’s recent article in the Business Daily titled, “Economy ambles at 50km per hour due to arbitrary law enforcement” caught my attention. This column has in the past insisted that our alcohol laws have not been well thought out, which means they will not address the real problems on the ground.

READ: KANTAI: Economy ambles along at 50kph due to arbitrary law enforcement

Similarly, road policymakers need to take a helicopter perspective when coming up with new rules or enforcing old ones. Instead of thinking from a prefect’s perspective, there should also be focus on the public’s psychology and behaviour.

Research on cheating shows that if the examining system is considered unfair, then the students are more likely to find ways to cheat the system. Similarly, rules that are one-sided are likely to be considered as having been created to be broken.

When Thika Highway was built, it was meant to address the many man hours that were being lost in traffic. The 50kph rule would mean that the economic benefits of such a highway will be diluted. People will travel at low speeds, which will slow down Nairobi’s economy and consequently kill jobs, leading to stress.

Nairobi residents will also be required to wake up earlier than usual to get to their destinations at a slower pace. This will not increase their quality of life as intended by Vision 2030. While the rule is meant to increase public safety, this may not be realised. One of the reasons is that someone hit by a car moving at 50kph still has a slim chance of surviving although fatality rates may be lower than at higher speeds.

Another reason is that if you look at the cases where speed is authorised, like for ambulances, the intention is to save lives. By lowering the speed of everyone else, ambulances, fire extinguishers and even the presidential motorcade are likely to be delayed by the resulting traffic jams.

The “motorcade” of Nairobi entrepreneurs and workers will also be unnecessarily delayed, slowing down the city’s economy whose GDP is estimated at over $3,000 (Sh266,000) per capita.

The speed limit also handicaps motorists because keeping an eye on the speedometer goes against good practice of focusing on the road.

Law enforcers are also sometimes required to instruct motorists to speed in order to clear traffic jams. One officer on a busy Nairobi road once asked a BMW driver why he was “riding a horse at the speed of a donkey.”

When vehicles are stuck in traffic, there is more fuel consumption which is a waste of resources. This also increases the cost and ease of doing business and makes the city less attractive to investors. More emissions lead to increased pollution which has health consequences for citizens and impacts public spending.

As Kantai’s article highlighted, the best laws are almost invisible – they reinforce predictable behaviour and punish defiance. A standard speed limit on all Nairobi roads is not practical; roads should be defined and different limits prescribed. We attempted to drive within the speed limit on Waiyaki Way and it was almost impossible.

Some experts say that speed limits should be set within 85 per cent of the average speed on a road. This incorporates motorists’ behaviour and other road dynamics.

Rural roads

It is true that speed kills, and this is the reason why many cities across the world have been on a roll to reduce speed limits within cities.

The Nairobi speed limit is abnormal because of its blanket application. British Columbia recently increased speed limits in some rural roads and majority of motorist supported the idea in polls with greater support coming from men than women.

The Nairobi speed limit is not a well- thought-out plan and it will have many unpleasant and unintended consequences if not reviewed.

Ngahu is the marketing director of SBO Research. E-mail: [email protected], Twitter @bngahu