Applicability of Internet of Things (Iot) to Reduce Traffic Congestion in Nairobi City, Kenya

Abstract

Traffic congestion has been a mounting problem in Nairobi, Kenya, that has resulted from rapidly increasing population and the flocking of motorized traffic on the limited street network. Some of traffic concerns are congestions and accidents which have caused a huge waste of time, property damage and environmental pollution within the city. Therefore, this research involved analysis of the current traffic conditions in Nairobi, the expected effects of further growth in demand, and a set of recommendations for how to improve the performance of the street network. From the analysis, the research pursued an intelligent traffic administration system, centered on Internet of Things, that has been characterized by low cost, high scalability, high compatibility and easy to upgrade. After conducting this study, the intelligent traffic administration system could be used by Cities to replace their traditional traffic management systems therefore reduce road traffic tremendously. The IoT is based on the Internet, network wireless, sensing and detection technologies used to comprehend the intelligent recognition on any tagged traffic object by tracking, monitoring, managing and processing data automatically. The study was cross sectional with analytical component and through simple random sampling, 200 private car drivers and 12 county parking attendants were selected for the study. The data collection tools utilized included a structured self-administered questionnaires. Data collected was analyzed using SPSS version 21 and Excel spreadsheet and presented in form of text, tables, graphs and charts. Private cars spent in the morning an average of 1.6 hours while in the evening they spent an average of 2.0 hours stuck in the on traffic jam. Although private car drivers were ranked second as the cause of traffic jam behind matatu drivers, drivers looking for parking lots was consistenty considered to be the most cause of traffic jam in Nairobi. This was further compounded by the fact that drivers sometimes failed to identify existing parking lots in town with drivers spending an average of 30 minutes looking for parking lots in the morning thereby effectively rendering parking identification inconvenient as well as parking payment.