Picture 8.1 to 8.3: Gutas

There are other challenging users of the road - the famous tricycles - christened "gutas" after their origin from India. They are sometimes overloaded , serving as a breakdown to another including its passenger (picture 8.1 left), supplying a much needed source of fuel - charcoal) (picture 8.3 lower left) or even carrying items such as a gas cylinder (picture 8.2 below).

All these are about making ends meet.

Picture 9.0: Manzese use to be the most dangerous crossing place. In a single day up to 15 people would be hit by a speeding motor. When the road was rebuilt in the early 1990s, this pedestrian fly-over bridge was constructed . The outcome was not what was expected.

People did not use it for various reasons. One reason is its design - the staircase is too steep for comfort for many, and it is not disabled-friendly. Secondly is its location relative to the busy feeder roads where some pedestrian would have to make a long deviation to and from it for a crossing.

A third reason was that some people turned it into a winning place. Robbers would position themselves on it and rob pedestrians even in day light. So road deaths at this point continued.

Picture 9.1: In the 2000s the city introduced this metal bar barricade alongside the road in a bid to stop pedestrians from crossing the road as they wish.

This helped a bit but for the reasons above, other zebra crossings were introduced at certain points along the barricade to cater for those who still can not trust being over the bridge.

Picture 9.2: Also drivers deserted the bus stop beside the bridge because the pedestrian route expected over the bridge and hence the location of this bus stop did not work.

See the brave ones on the bridge and also see few people seated in the shade - these are more likely taking advantage of the shade against the sun rather than waiting for busses.

The bus stop is now a stop for lorries from up-country which bring crop related goods to Tandale Market located about 700 metres off the road at this point. They stop as the cargo owner go to the market to find interested buyers before they can drive in.

Picture 10: Here you see a pedestrian crossing sign place right at the crossing itself, and it is also right at the end of the bus stop.

With the parking behaviour described earlier, there is high chance that the warning sign will not be visible, and since the zebra paintings on the road are worn out, a motorist needs to be familiar with the road to give way at this point.

This photograph was taken at Magomeni, a few hundred metres before branching off to Kawawa road which takes me to OUT about 2 ½ kms.

Picture 11: Since it was already about 9.30 am the road had no more interesting prospects. So I decided to turn back home and on my way I picked up a couple of things.

This picture shows one of the few new estate developments along this road - a joint venture between The National Insurance Corporation and National Social Security Fund - The Ubungo Plaza which apart from housing offices, banks, and shops, it also house a new hotel - the Blue Pearl Hotel.

Picture 12: shows the spot at the bottom of the Ubungo stretch of the road we saw earlier with a long traffic jam. At the bottom right corner of the photo is the spot where the person who was hit by a motorist was laying.

See, it is only after 9 o'clock (before 10 am) and the road is clear.

Conclusions: There are issues to be deduced from this trip's recordings

Behaviour of road users - drivers, riders, pedestrians and so on- needs to be improved for better traffic management

The minibuses need to be replaced by bigger capacity busses and a timetable needs to be designed and implemented.

There are road design issues including pedestrians, drainage, bus stops, flyovers, warning signs etc.

Road maintenance and cleaning. Cleaning programmes also need to focus on the drainages as well as on the roads. Safety equipment must be provided and used properly.

The way bus owners contract operators/drivers needs to be checked out. Although there is a plan to introduce rapid bus transport in the near future (estimated 2009) there is still a long way to go before they completely take over the mini busses. Hence it is important that contracting matters are checked out. There is a regulator but has been unsuccessful in controlling the behaviour of these drivers. .