On curbing traffic, the norm in Ke is to build infrastructure to increase the number of vehicles that can be on the road concurrently, it is all well, but on the flip side, a different strategy can be employed.
Why not build infrastructure that is aimed at causing more cars to NOT be on the road? I know your mental cylinders are firing right now wondering what he talking about?
I'm talking about a dedicated bicycle road network or bike lanes. The benefits are enormous.
- People will be able to get from any part of Nrb to any other part within minutes.
- People from far outside Nairobi e.g. those from Ongata Rongai who spend e.g. 2 hrs in jam can use electric assisted bikes to help them cover large distances with ease. Distance from Rongai to Nrb is about 20km, thus it will take 30 min to get to Nrb if riding at 40 km/h. One can always carry a change of clothes / take a shower in Nrb, hit the office, cycle back. With some ebikes on eco mode, cyclists can get electric assisted for about 120 km, relative to terrain, battery capacity & drive motor power consumption.
- For ebikes, they usually have a 1kw battery pack. 1kw of electricity is cheap to charge. It costs just a few shillings. With kplc 1 unit is equivalent to 1kw. With 1 kw in eco mode, people have been able to get 100 km or more. Relative to all the different variables. You can unplug the battery from the bike and charge while in office. 1 kw battery pack takes about as long as it takes to charge an iPad. It depends on the type of charger and battery capacity you got.
- No more parking expenses.
- No unnecessary car fuel expenses.
- Less vehicles on the rd by the thousands. Look at how many personal vehicles have just one able person inside? Now if those individuals just grabbed a bike?
- Less pollution or cleaner air.
- Free daily cardio workouts, burn fat, healthy strong population, weight control as calories will be burnt. Can easily forget gym membership for cardio purposes. (Sorry gym industry).
- Bike lanes are much cheaper to add than expanding the car road network.
- Jobs will be created in the bike business, including repairs.
- The free time that will be created allowing people to have more time to do more things aka, increased productivity = more $ in pocket. Or more free time to relax, spend with fam.
- Figure how much you will be saving per month with this new model, considering what has been mentioned plus what has not been mentioned that you can think of.
- It will only be in wet days that folk will need to use their cars or if they need to go cross country, or if they need to travel as group.
- Streets need to be well illuminated at night.
- Have speed controls, e.g. minimum speed.
- Have overtaking lane.
Gov will need to educate and encourage folk to bike.
On the onset, the Gov will need to get the Dutch involved, as they are are pioneers in bicycle road networks.
If we do this, we will leapfrog over other so called "developed" countries. They will envy us.
Or are Kenyans with vehicles too lofty to ride bikes? I hope not.
They tried to bury us, they didn't know we were seeds.