| I think saying that cars are limited to the citys elites is overstating the case a bit. There are quite a few middle class families with cars. The problem is twofold 1: The collapse of the public bus system (KBS or Kenya Bus Service) in the early 90s
2: The lack of any investment in infrastructure since at least the 70s. There are a bunch of reasons (IMF structural adjustment, corruption, poor planning etc) I'm kenyan and remember that in the 80s it was relatively quick for me to get to downtown Nairobi, or to School (for anyone who knows Nairobi, I was commuting from South B to Nairobi Primary School). I could either have my parents drop me (they worekd in the CBD and drove there), take a bus to downtown Nairobi and walk to school from there or take another bus to school (I used to opt to walk the 2nd leg and buy these really terrible SciFi books 'Perry Rhodhan' that were translated to English from German, but thats another story...). In 1980, the bus/matatu ride from South B to Downtown Nairobi (near Standard Chatered bank) took about 10-12 minutes. The last time I did this (in 2010, I needed to get from South B to the National Archives in the CBD so I hopped a #11 Matatu), it took 2 hours, and that was not in rush hour traffic. I could have gotten out and walked there faster (and regularly used to do so in the 80s, but everything is fenced off and over-built). The next day I drove with my mum and same thing (South B to Kariokor), there is literally no way of avoiding spending a large amount of your life sitting in traffic, and it boggles my mind that there are cities that are worse (i.e mexico City) There are simply too many cars for the infrastructure. And in a really bone-headed move, some time ago the government decided to solve this problem by banning public service vehicles (buses and matatus) from the Central Business District, but private cars were allowed. Of course this was so the rich could travel un-impeded. The plan didn't last due to the outcry, but that shows you the priorities of the politicians. But if it meets its promise, this app would be truly amazing and useful. And the name (Hakuna Matatu), you have to understand Swahili to appreciate the pure awesomeness of that pun. |