Level Of Provision And Usability Of Non-Motorized Transport Infrastructure Along Tom Mboya Street, Nairobi City County

Abstract

Non Motorised Transport (NMT) is an integral part of the transport system whether in the urban or the rural setting. NMT is typically a part of every trip made. Everyone uses it at some point in their trip for instance, once they get off the bus walking to an office block or to a mall or walking to the bus stop or their car or from or to the train station. The recently prepared NMT policy for Nairobi City County identified various challenges facing NMT in the city as a whole which include; lack of policy implementation, road-based Nairobi transport system, lacking NMT infrastructure, encroachment into NMT spaces and lack of enforcement, unsafe pedestrians environments, inaccessibility and discomfort in usage of pedestrian and cyclist facilities (Nairobi City County, 2015). The main objective of the study was to assess the provision and usability of non-motorized transport infrastructure along Tom Mboya Street in Nairobi City County. This study will be guided by systems approach and New Urbanism theory. Correlational design was used to determine the relationship between NMT provision and NMT usability along Tom Mboya Street in Nairobi because it shows relationships between variables, and if a relationship exists, to determine a regression equation that could be used make predictions to a population. The target population of the study included pedestrians, cyclists, traders/business operators (both formal and informal), private road users, public vehicles operators, the implementing agencies and also the key informants from the Department of City Engineering (Nairobi City County Government), Traffic Police Department, Nairobi City County Government Traffic Management section, KURA and National Transport and Safety Authority. Relevant officials were selected from each of the departments and institutions. The study adopted purposive and quota sampling. The findings were reported both descriptively and graphically using, tables, bar charts, histograms, pie-charts, graphs and spatial maps and 2D and 3D design models. The common NMT modes in along Tom Mboya Street in Nairobi are walking, cycling for personal transport, and human drawn carts for goods and garbage transport, trolleys and wheelchairs. Wheel barrows are also used but to a limited extent. Therefore NMT infrastructure include foot paths, pavements, terminal facilities, zebra crossings, traffic lights, signs and speed bumps to regulate speed at different levels in the urban transport system, for safety of motorized and non – motorized alike. It was established that 59% used walk-matatu-walk modal mix while 35% used walk-bus-walk. It was further established that 6% of the NMT users along Tom Mboya Street walked throughout. Based on the findings, majority of the respondents were dissatisfied with the condition of existing Zebra crossing with 44% of them indicating that it was lacking while 19% indicated that it was in poor condition. Only 29% of the respondents indicated that the condition of Zebra crossing was satisfactory. In terms of traffic lights, 36% of the respondents rated it as good while 25% rated it as being in excellent condition. The study concluded that Tom Mboya Street lacks of pedestrian’s lane and cycle tracks and signage, roadways designs, including traffic calming, road diets, and traffic speed controls. The study recommends that Tom Mboya Street needs the provision of sufficient pedestrian walkways wide enough to accommodate the large number of pedestrians using this section of the CBD. This will help sort the problem of pedestrians spilling to the carriage ways thus causing traffic congestion. Also provision of better pedestrian walkways will allow for better movements of pedestrians reducing incidences of human congestion.