Editor,

Refer to Allan Brian Ssenyonga’s article, "We can do better to manage city traffic” (The New Times, March 15).

The poor synchronisation of traffic lights is one of the main reasons for traffic congestion in the City of Kigali.

The problem has persisted for several years now. That is why traffic police are often called in to do what the lights can’t: ensure the fluidity of traffic through intersections.

I have no idea who won the contract to put up the lights, but I’m amazed they haven’t been put to task for the exceedingly poor quality of their work. Isn’t there a clause in the contract that requires them to fix problems as they arise?

It’s as though as soon as the lights went up, that was it and their work was done. It’s been a meager return on what was surely a very significant investment. No lights would be better than the lights we have now.

Chris

****************I doubt our traffic light problems would be solved by just bringing back the contractor—it must be more complex than that. I think it would be fixed by properly adjusting settings on the software that drives them.

The City of Kigali authorities should tell us if we lack that capacity because bigger cities with more traffic lights and more traffic do not experience the problems we have on a daily basis?

Charles