EDITORIAL: Road safety is a must, but so is time management

Rwanda National Police this week started to crackdown on public service vehicles that flouted the new speed governor directives. Commuter minibuses have been restrained to travel not faster than 60 kilometres per hour. Some owners have found ingenious ways to beat the trap, switching the speed governor on and off at will. While the compulsory installation of speed governors on public transport vehicles was done for the sake of passengers’ safety, 60KMH is turning out to be unreasonable. If someone can take an hour and a half to travel from Kigali to Muhanga in the Southern Province, that is just a stone throw away, imagine how long it takes to travel to Rusizi. The time wasted on the road will in the end turn costly for a country that has no time to lose. If the speed limit was to be capped at 80KPH, as it applies to private vehicles, the time spent on the road would be reduced by more than 30 percent. Road safety is primordial, no doubt about it, but isn’t there a middle ground acceptable to all? The introduction of the point deduction system for traffic offenders is one way since the hefty traffic fines have done little to improve sanity on our roads. Another area that Rwanda Transport Development Agency and the police should look into is the quality of our driving schools. Driving is not just a matter of steering a vehicle from point A to B, there is more to it such as obeying traffic signs and respecting the safety of pedestrians and passengers. There are many good policies set up with good intentions, but sometimes it needs some deep thinking and adapting them to current situations to serve the purpose they were intended.

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EDITORIAL: Road safety is a must, but so is time management