Getting started

11 September 2011: Welcome to the first modest steps toward creating a collaborative website and information base for projects and programs in support of sustainable transport in the beautiful city of Kampala, but also with an eye to providing information and insights that will be useful in other cities in Uganda and indeed the rest of Africa.

Seeking safety on Kampala’s streets

The streets of Kampala are, as with the case in all too many cities in the Global South, more than a little rough on cyclists and pedestrians. More than that, there is rarely any real interest in most political establishments in the concept of safe streets. So where do you start in order to break the old pattern and long standing deadlock? A group of young people in Kampala Uganda, decided this year to organise their first Car Free Day. The following document reports on the plans and intention. A courageous effort that we should all be applauding.

Towards Carfree Cities X: What happened in Guadalajara from 3 to 10 September 2011?

From the Editor’s Desk:
This year’s World Carfree Network Conference was organized by the dynamic and fast growing city of Guadalajara, under the title Towards Carfree Cities (Hacia ciudades libres de autos), and with the support and management of two local activist groups, Ciudad Para Todos and GDL en Bici. I was invited to provide the opening keynote address on the topic of “Better Cities with a Lot Fewer Cars”, to kick off a weeklong festival of events, discussions, and presentations in the context of their program. My chosen themes were (a) deep democracy and (b) the need for immediate action. I was wonderfully received and learned a lot during my busy week with them.

Towards Car Free Cities. Guadalajara, Mexico, 5-9 Sept. 2011

The time to move towards carfree cities has come. We must come from the cities that we don´t know to the ones we belong to. Step by step moving onto the right way. To make a call up, to share this view and to open our own mind in order to have a better future for all of us, to find better ways to transport ourselves in a conscious way. It´s time to move on.

Transportation Today

This important page will provide statistical data and other information to summarize the main situation with regard to how people are getting around in Kampala today. It will hopefully provide sections covering:

• Key statistical indicators and trend information
• Main concerned institutions and agencies
• Citizen groups, NGOs working in this area
• Pedestrianization and walking
• Cycling provision and support
• Infrastructure situation and projects
• Road building and maintenance
• Cars and parking
• Private buses
• Public transport
• Motorized two/three wheelers
• Taxis and Boda-Boda
• School transport
• Services/provisions for handicapped and elderly
• Key concerned institutions and their roles
• Funding and fares
• Topographical, climate and other limitations/constraints
• Air quality indicators
• Public health indicators
• Accidents and deaths, related to traffic

This may seem loke a lot and it is. But as it stands here today it is still incomplete. The fact is that the mobility sector in Kampala is huge, touches everybody, complex, full of contradictions, barriers . . and opportunities. What we hope that the Streets of Kampala will do will be to encourage new thinking about transport in Kampala, and to introduce the voices of independent active citizens to provide another speaking partner for government and other decisions in the sector.

[Please help us to complete this list and to start to provide useful background on each of these important categories.]

Get behind the Streets of Kampala

* Who is thus far supporting the project? Click here.
* And click here to add your voice to theirs.

Homage to Lee Schipper: Physicist and Iconoclast

From the New York Times. Leon J. Schipper, a physicist whose passion for data led him to question the value of popular energy policies, like government subsidies for ethanol and for electric cars and the “cash for clunkers” program, died Tuesday in Berkeley, Calif. He was 64. Leon Schipper, Physicist and Iconoclast – By Matthew L. Wald, New York Times. August 18, 2011 Dr. Schipper, who was known as Lee, held a bachelor’s degree in music and a Ph. … Read More

via World Streets: A New Mobility Agenda

About Key Sources

If you look down on the right column you will see a section entitled Key Sources, which is still in its early stages but nonetheless already a useful source of information and perspective on sustainable transportation in and around cities in Africa.

Please consider this an open invitation to inform us about key sources which you think will be of use not only to those in Kampala trying to deal with the problems of improving transportation and safety on their streets, but also more generally to anyone with a serious interest in sustainable transport, sustainable cities and sustainable lives.

Children, Transport and Mobility in Africa: Sharing experiences

2011 is the Year of Africa on World Streets, and here you have the first of what we intend will develop into an engaging series of articles, ideas and information on problems, attitudes, responses, barriers and the ingenious work-arounds that African children and adults are so often obliged to find on their own.

This publication was funded by The Africa Community Access Programme (AFCAP) to help us better understand how children look at and deal with day to day challenges of transport and mobility in three African countries.

In the slums of Nairobi: What do you do when you are losing a war?

If it is your assumption that we are at present losing the war for sustainable transport and sustainable lives — and that is very definitely our position here at World Streets — and if it is your firm intention not to lose it — as it is ours! — then what do you do when the going gets tough? Well you look around and put to work every potentially promising tool you can lay your hands on. Now we make a pretty consistent effort in these pages to bring to your attention creative media that illustrates, renders more understandable and supports our noble cause. But we need more: so what about doing more along these lines taken from today’s edition of the International Herald Tribune?