Kenya’s tech community collaborates to put an end to Nairobi’s traffic
Skift Take
You can crowdsource all the data you want, but it will take an engaged and compliant population to buy in to the system to produce any kind of change.
Like all Nairobians, Jessica Colaço hates traffic jams, especially the out-of-nowhere monster tailbacks that make travelling in this sprawling city a gut-clenching gamble. Unlike most drivers, Colaço is doing something about it.
The 30-year-old is a research manager at Nairobi's iHub, a tech innovation centre where Kenyans brainstorm ideas. She is helping her team develop intelligent traffic lights to ease the chaos in the city considered to have the fourth worst commute in the world.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Traffic jam in Nairobi, Kenya. Photo by Jeff Turner.[/caption]
"I hate driving in Nairobi. There is no management on the junctions … It becomes a deadlock," she said. City officials estimate traffic jams cost east Africa's largest economy more than 50m Kenyan shillings (£365,000) a day. "
