Malls to blame for part of city traffic jams

An areal view of Nairobi city. FILE PHOTO |

What you need to know:

  • National Lands Commission chairman Mohammed Swazuri says any shop that is constructed within a road reserve will be demolished at one point in the near future
  • One way of addressing the traffic is through design of deccelerating and accelerating lanes, possibly within the property if road reserve is inadequate

One of the main causes of traffic snarl-ups along major highways are the huge shopping malls that fail to consider the congestion caused by vehicles leaving and entering from main roads, planners say. But where there is a wide road, a mall will come up soon.

As more people relocate to the outskirts of the city centre, traffic congestion on major roads is increasing in tandem. The problem is further exacerbated by the various shopping malls that dot the highways on major junctions and roundabouts.

And as the Nairobi’s population surges, the government is tasked with expanding infrastructure to ease movement within the city. However, unforseen hiccups have hampered these plans.

After the construction of the Sh27 billion Thika Super Highway, a number of commercial buildings set up shop along the road. One of this — a major shopping centre, tagged as East Africa’s largest shopping mall — is already under construction.

The 32-acre development, christened Garden City, will cost Sh12 billion to complete and will have a 50,000-square-metre retail space while still accommodating modern commercial premises, 500 new homes and a four-acre central park. The park will also house an outdoor events arena for the staging of concerts and shows.

This will of course translate to hundreds of visitors per day and result in an exponential increase in human and vehicular traffic.

Architectural experts point out that before a road is constructed, surveyors conduct a population estimate of the area so as to build a road that will serve their needs effectively. However, this has been occasionally overlooked by local road constructors.

Recently, Dagoretti North MP Simba Arati threatened to lead a demonstration calling for the closure of the Yaya Center shopping mall in Milimani Nairobi. According to the MP, the mall was the main cause of major traffic jams along Argwings Kodhek and Ring roads after its refusal to surrender a parking bay for a road construction.

The 15-metre road reserve stretch has caused the road construction along Ring Road to slow down following a dispute over the parking bay. The end result is traffic jam that has slowed down business in the area.

“Clearly the area, which was a parking space, is in a road reserve, yet the management demanded Sh50 million. This is impunity of the highest order,” Arati said.

But the Managing Director of the mall Elisabeth Klem disagrees, saying the parking bay has since been surrendered to the Kenya Urbans Roads Authority. 

According to Klem, the stretch validly belongs to Yaya Centre but it has since surrendered it to the government. She states that the space was surrendered the space without any conditions.

“We have since given out the space because we believe in the betterment of the community, the stretch was ours but we placed the public interest first before ours,” says Klem.

Klem says they are in negotiation with the constructor so as to build exit and entry points to avoid traffic jams in the area.

PROJECTED TRAFFIC DEMANDS

In a recent interview with DN2, National Lands Commission chairman Mohammed Swazuri said any shop that is constructed within a road reserve will be demolished at one point in the near future.    

“We use the international standards to measure the width of road reserves,” he said.

According to the Chairman of Institution of Surveyors of Kenya Collins Owuor, road developments are usually preceded by projection of traffic demands.

But this method, Owuor says, may be difficult to accurately project in undeveloped areas where a road is being constructed.

Such areas which may be sleeping will all of a sudden wake up after a road is constructed in the area.

“During development approvals, approving authorities are supposed to consider the parking spaces and projected traffic before they grant approval. Proposals on how to address the projected traffic are supposed to be included and considered adequately,” he says.

Owuor further offers some insights on how to deal with traffic jams in a particular developing area.

One way of addressing the traffic is through design of deccelerating and accelerating lanes, possibly within the property if road reserve is inadequate. This is supposed to ensure that vehicles entering the developments do not affecting traffic flowing along the main roads.
“In case such is not addressed, traffic jams are created by such developments,” he says.  

There are shopping malls such as Junction Mall in Dagoretti Corner that have created slip roads to tame the traffic. Owuor adds that the location of entry into the property is crucial.

“What normally causes traffic jams is the direct entries from the main roads, entries from slip roads are unlikely cause a jam.” he explains.
The traffic jams can also be reduced by separating entries from exits and avoiding intersection of lanes serving the two. Intersection of lanes serving as entry and exit has been experienced at T-Mall in Nairobi West.

Owuor says his organisation has continuously engaged  the relevant authorities to consider such criteria before they granting approval  for the construction a shopping malls on major roads.

“We also come up with suggested solutions to such problems which we share with the approval authorities.”

Owuor says it may also serve the road authority well to enhance their publicity and awareness measures on road expansion plans. They can do this by asking the public to submit their projected traffic demands and development for accurate projections.

“This will also assist us in creating appropriate entry and exit points from the main roads. This appears to have been a challenge in expansion of Thika Road into the Super Highway,” he concludes.