Editorial
March 24, 2004
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The Traffic Police, grappling with ways and means to resolve the traffic gridlock headache in Kampala City, has come up with what they might assume is an ingenious measure: erecting traffic towers at trouble spots. This is a 19th Century approach to a 21st Century problem being implemented in an era where President Museveni is leading the charge up the path of modernisation. The global trend has been to harness basic technology in the form of traffic lights – and it works. Uganda’s most recent interaction with these lights at the Wandegeya and Nakawa junctions in the city has been a positive one. Those lights have returned motorist sanity to what were once impossible spots to drive through during rush hour. Why then is the police force sticking with such an archaic idea with little indication that it will produce a dividend? Traffic cops already have enough difficulty controlling motorists with their feet firmly planted on the ground, what are the chances that with them stuck up in those tin towers, several feet above the ground, they will fare any better? The argument that these structures will give the enforcers a bird’s eye view of things along the road is unwieldy. Those metal contraptions also pose a danger to the man occupying them – they look rickety and the sandbags placed on their floors for additional stability offer a false sense of security. Imagine what would happen to an officer sitting inside the thing, if an out of control vehicle slammed into it at high speed. The officer would not be able to do anything to save himself from certain injury. The firm that provided those towers may have had noble intentions but we are afraid in this age of advanced science the idea is off the spot. Those things are archaic; they pose a clear risk to the officers sitting in them and may not solve the problem of traffic jams. Our police force would do much better if it emphasised to the local government authorities the need to re-design our roads (expansion, one way lanes) and installation of traffic lights. This is the proven way to the future. |
© 2004 The Monitor Publications
M7 and his "clear line ideas! Surely is Kla moving forward or backs with this thing? Has NRA/M surely run out of ideas? Are peasants(M7's bosses) the ones running the show in town?
Will the long horned cows grazing along kla road also respect these caged policemen?
Hallo? Is anyone thinking at Nakasero lodge or simply playing with his favourite toy the AK 47 in Barlonyo?
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