Police, Kigali earmark 700 parking stages for motocycles

Rwanda national Police, in partnership with the City of Kigali, have announced plans to set up 700 parking stations for commercial taxi-motorcycle operators in the capital.According to SP Jean Marie Vianney Ndushabandi, the Traffic and Road Safety Spokesperson, this will help motorcyclists become more organised and reduce accidents in the city.“This exercise will continue country wide. The budget for this project is still being mobilised and the space will be allocated in partnership with the local authorities, meaning there is no need to apply for it because they will be in public areas,” explains Ndushabandi.ComplaintsBut a number of motorcyclists and users are not happy with the changes, arguing that some people who stay in residential areas will have problems accessing public transport.“We have no taxis in our neighbourhoods and our only means are motorcycles, which may not work for us if they are grounded in one place. Unless these stages are also extended to neighbourhoods,” Ronnie Twahirwa, a resident of Kanombe in Kicukiro District told Saturday Times.It is not only Twahirwa complaining about transport difficulties in the city, but a number of people around town say that these motorcycles find them at convenient places and the moment they are stationed at parking stations it will be difficult to access them.The taxi-moto operators are also not pleased with the news of parking stations saying that their clients are too lazy to move and a number of them just wait at their door steps.They further noted that this will be limiting their options, saying that moving around looking for clients makes those who had not planned to take a motorcycle end up on one.

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Police, Kigali earmark 700 parking stages for motocycles