Editor,

RE: "Who will tame Kigali's errant motorists?” (The New Times, March 20).

Excellent piece! Fines are working effectively when you see that no vehicle dares park on pedestrian walks. Glad the author highlighted the issue of dangerous cargo often carried by taxi-moto passengers.

My skin crawls when I see them carrying the menacing grass cutters precariously balancing heavy rounded saw in the air speeding in traffic. I have seen glass panes to what they could do at the slightest collision.

Traffic light cameras as well as mounted on citizen dashboards of vehicles could help in evidence gathering for prosecutions and/or fining.

Denis Rugege

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Excellent article and very well written—I really enjoyed reading it.

Absolutely, road safety is paramount to protect the population, especially important as the roads are in good condition (congrats to the Government) with some motorists believing they are on a race track with no laws.

Enforcement of safety laws would save lots of lives and needs to keep up with improvements in infrastructure (the author cited red lights, zebra crossings…, these indeed exist for a reason).

In the six years I have been here, I have lost more friends on the road than my entire life abroad – not even close.

I remember one particularly sad event when a friend who had been orphaned by the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and had grown up into a successful young man, with great potential and a future to be a productive adult when his life was ended in a traffic accident a couple of years ago.

Djo

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Glad that someone brought to light this dangerous killer on the streets of Kigali.

In my view, as Kigali expands, there'll be more demand for more taxi-motos and this will increase road safety problems on the streets.

There's something the author mentioned about these motorcyclists misbehaving even in front of a traffic policeman; why is it so? Is it possible that some of these motos are owned by "well-placed” individuals? Why do they look down upon an officer on duty?

My suggestion is – for the sake of green Kigali and safety of individuals –government should restrict this menacing form of transport too far away from Kigali and invest more in City buses and let special taxi "cars” chip in for motos.

I understand they're affordable but the cost of life can be too high.

Patrick