Can anything be done to stop motorists in faster cars jumping the queue and forcing their way into non-existent spaces in long tailbacks? Offended.
The surest and fullest solution is to make queue-jumping unnecessary...with measures that stop long nose-to-tail queues forming in the first place! Queue jumping is an end-result of a problem, not a primary cause of it.
The real causes are roads that are not designed for the traffic loads they now carry; drivers who are not taught how to overtake efficiently as well as safely; and, into that logjam-waiting-to-happen, a high proportion of vehicles which are unable to manage an ambient highway speed.
Those are the key issues policy-makers will have to address: Turning most or all of Trans-Africa Highway No 8 (Mombasa to Malaba) into a dual carriageway; a drastic overhaul of driving tuition, testing and enforcement standards; and segregating traffic so that any vehicle unable to maintain an ambient speed of at least 60 kph and preferably 80 kph throughout would be obliged to use another route.
The dual carriageway element (preferably with three lanes each way) is a no brainer, and it will surely happen. The policy decision is “when” to spend the multi-billions it will cost – soon and completely, or later and piecemeal, so the multi-billions will continue to be “lost” in additional fuel consumption, vehicle wear and – above all – millions upon millions of man-hours of wasted time.
The issue of slow vehicles is not so much an answer as a question: why do so many of our trucks lumber along at 40 kph or less? Are they overloaded, or unroadworthy, or do they have completely inappropriate power specifications for long-haul cruising at high altitude? Even relatively small trucks that are permitted to use the “No HGV” route between Limuru and Naivasha are among the super slow obstructions. And in what aberration of concept are boda-bodas, tuk-tuks and even donkey carts permitted to use the country’s most important and busiest arterial highway? Anywhere. Ever.
All “cars” are designed to cruise all day at 80 kph at least, and most could maintain 100 kph or more. But many bimble along at half-those speeds even when the road is clear, because either the vehicle – or the driver – is unroadworthy (talking on a mobile phone, or not taught how to overtake promptly, swiftly and safely, nor aware that is their lawful duty to make “adequate progress” within the ambient flow. Both the teaching and testing standards warrant a major upgrade to address that (and more than a few other “not aware” syndromes).
Meanwhile...
Remember that in a queue behind a slow vehicle, the priority “right of way” to overtake (when safe to do so) belongs to the vehicle immediately behind the obstruction. Then the next, then the next. Even if the car behind the crawler is a Probox and the next 20 cars in the queue are all Ferraris and turbocharged SUVs. Wait your turn.
Technically (but sometimes impractically) it is an offence to overtake a line of vehicles. The protocol is one at a time, when you can clearly see the road ahead is clear to complete the manoeuvre and there is space ahead of the car you are passing and to return to your side of the road without forcing any other vehicle (heading in either direction) to change its speed or line.
The problem on our congested highways is that not all of the people in the queue can take their chance, for want of power, or competence or inclination. So “waiting your turn” can take inordinately more time than it should. The queue is a hotch-potch mix of crawlers, ditherers, boy racers and high sided trucks that block the view.
This is further compounded by the habit of all (!) those species to drive too near the vehicle in front of them. Their view of potential opportunity is more obstructed, they cannot judge a run-up, so they are at higher speed than the vehicle they are overtaking before the manoeuvre starts, and their sole purpose is to use all of the available “gap” to get past the obstruction themselves...never mind the chance for those behind them to use the same gap. First they dither, then they dawdle...often in the wrong gear for brisk acceleration.
In these circumstances, it would be a miracle if all drivers observed the take-your-turn principle – especially those doing 100kph as they arrive at the back of a long queue doing only 20 kph and oncoming traffic is still some distance away.
That’s why we need to tackle the root causes of the problem, not just its symptoms.
