Mombasa County Government plans to install smart traffic lights in a major project by the county government and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Speaking to Baraka FM, Transport and Infrastructure County Executive Committee Member (CECM) Daniel Manyala said that the county will also install CCTV cameras at the intersections through the Intelligent Transport System model.
“What smart traffic lights mean essentially is very modern and intelligent queue management systems, where sections of roads are given priority by the length of the traffic congestion at the time. We are looking at very intelligent cameras, with the capability of things like face recognition and numberplate recognition technology,” said Manyala.
CECM Manyala said plans are underway to break ground for the project in a year.
“This is going to solve for us the current traffic management issues that we have. The current intersections where we used to have traffic lights are seven, we are going to increase these to 21 and they are going to spread from North Coast to Mombasa West for example Bamburi Mtamboni, coming to Kenol, Kengeleni, Buxton,” said CEC Manyala.
The CEC said the technology will help the county address consistent traffic offenses in a corrective and not punitive way.
“If you commit a traffic offense we can follow up and give you a ticket like it happens in modern cities. You just get an alert and a ticket to pay your fine. This, we aim, will also help us raise revenue to help us maintain our roads,” he said.
“We have our traffic marshals, they are doing a superb job in traffic management and reinforcement, but charging or fining offenders is not in their mandate. What we are looking at now is to enhance what they do by bringing in technology,” he added.
