Cycling out poverty Uganda (CooP-Uganda), a nonprofit organisation promoting a nonmotorized transport system in the country, is committed to facilitating the travel of Jinja city technocrats to Netherlands underscore the mode of transport.
Charlse Nampendo tye City’s Physical Planner, David Eremye (city Engineer) and Hanest Nabihamba (city environment officer) are among the group the preparing their passports and visas for a notable visit to the European country to study the relevance of nonmotorized transport and implement the system in the Busoga’s capital, Jinja.
It is confirmed that the important persons shall set off on April 12, and by April 20, the planners will be experts and ready to champion the cycling climate in Jinja. The study tour is part of a project in which CooP-Uganda and Jinja City Council envision transport Jinja City into a bicycle-friendly city
During a stakeholders meeting organised by CooP-Uganda on Wednesday at Jinja city hall, authorities from the Organisation and the city council strategized for the effectiveness of the project which they say the anticipated tour will show the planners attracted and inspired about Dutch examples in cycling-inclusive planning.
Jinja is a developing city after acquiring a city status in 2020, and several plans are underway to elevate it to a modern city. Mobility is a vital factor in the development of Jinja.
According to Marieke De Wild Monica, an engineer from CooP-Uganda, Jinja currently has issues with accessibility and congestion, especially on streets in the city centre.
“With developing the city, it is important to ensure there is safeguard so that Jinja remains widely accessible to all people. Having a growing population, and ambitions to grow the number of jobs and facilities in Jinja, adequate mobility planning is needed to ensure challenges such as congestion, air and noise pollution due to traffic such as experienced in Kampala for instance, will not emerge in Jinja,” said Marieke.
A report made by CooP-Uganda about transportation in Jinja city indicates that boda-boda that enters town takes a higher percentage while vehicles and bicycle riders take the rest of the percentage, which make pedestrians unsafe on roads. Nonmotorized road users say the car move at a higher speed, putting their lives at risk.
The Netherlands is one of the countries with the highest rate of bicycle use in the world. Whereas car use is equally high, people in the country deliberately choose to take a bicycle, especially for short distances.
“Cycling is part and partial in Jinja, and given its setting, it favours cycling activities. We aim to see Jinja embrace the cycling community,” she said.
Charles Nampendo, physical planner, is convinced with the initiative, which he says. Some people think it’s a backwards activity, but it can actually lead one from poverty.
“We welcomed CooP-Uganda and GIZ because we need Jinja City to be jam free, and if we see someone coming up with such an idea, they are really helping us. These people made a report and presented it about the status of cycling, and we need to see how best cycling can be done in Jinja,” said Nampendo.
“We are concentrating and putting emphasis on motorised roads, but there’s a group of people that are not considered. They need to be helped by creating routes that are favorable to nonmotorized road users,” he said, adding that, “We are ensuring that we have nonmotorable routes on different roads and we need to rethink about other users of the road.”
Nampendo vowed to continue supporting cycling events, rallying city councillors to embark on using bikes to attend council.
