Abstract: Road safety in urban areas of Kisumu County was an illusion despite the existence of Kenya’s potentially enabling road safety policy, which offers due guidance for proactive road traffic controls. Such road safety concerns in that part of Kisumu led to a lingering question because of scanty explanations of the dilemma in previous road safety research and policy reports. In light of this knowledge lacuna, this study sought to investigate the effectiveness of proactive traffic strategies on road safety in urban Kisumu that forms the most complex road transport system in the Nyanza region of south western Kenya. The strategies specifically assessed include designation of road use sideways, enforcement of automobile safety requirements and use of vehicle speed control gadgets. The study adopted descriptive correlational research design based on the quantitative and qualitative approach. The field survey involved a sample of 365 respondents selected from the accessible population 1919 persons using purposive and stratified random sampling strategies. The study found out that the level of road safety was relatively high in urban Kisumu. In particular, road fatality was only relatively reduced on urban roads in Kisumu County. The study findings show that the level of road safety was correspondingly attributed to discrepancies in designating road use sideways, enforcing automobile safety requirements and in the use of vehicle speed control gadgets. Specifically, road side ways were only fairly designated. Automobile safety requirements were only relatively enforced and vehicle speed control gadgets were less used in the urban territories Kisumu. Particularly, designation of road side ways predicted 42.4%, enforcement of automobile basic safety requirements predicted 36.2% and the adoption of safe driving regulator mechanisms predicted 33.4% of road safety in such areas. It was concluded that road safety in urban Kisumu had a very significant bearing on the three proactive traffic control strategies. Urban Kisumu, with moderate performance of these strategies, registered relative road safety. Nonetheless, urban Kisumu areas had lot more to do with such traffic control activities to boost road safety that was just average. It was therefore recommended that Kenya’s State Departments for Transport and Infrastructure, Kisumu County Government, the private sector and all other road users in the urban Kisumu should collectively help bolster proactive traffic control as required by Kenya’s road safety policy. All stakeholders can do that by going about their road use responsibilities in a fashion that ensures best practice regarding proactive of traffic control.
Keywords: proactivity, traffic control, strategies, road side ways, vehicle safety, gadgets, speed control.
Title: PROACTIVE TRAFFIC CONTROL STRATEGIES AND ROAD SAFETY IN URBAN KISUMU, NYANZA REGION IN KENYA
Author: Dr. Silas Oloo Mc’Opiyo
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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