Improving Road Safety: Extended Measures and Role of Private Toll Operators in Uganda

Abstract

Road safety remains a global issue, with the low and middle-income countries (LMICs) bearing the heaviest burden of road traffic accidents, which are the number one killer of children and youth aged between 5 to 29 and the eighth leading cause of deaths across
the world. This article conceptualizes roads as a mobility asset, connecting goods and persons to markets, jobs and opportunities. The study acknowledges that roads as assets have turned into a liability. Existing studies indicate that investments in transport to improve mobility have increased over years. Yet along with the increase in transport investments, road fatalities have increased. To reduce this trend, governments have focused on initiatives associated with man, manpower and money. Existing studies have focused on man, machine and money as key dimensions for improving road safety. The study adopted a qualitative design. Based on a review of scholarly articles and interviews with a purposively selected sample of respondents from the transport sector, this study concludes that while road safety and road traffic injuries have focused on the initiatives of man, money, machine and motorway, they are no longer sustainable as highways revert to private operators under public private partnership arrangements. This study recommends additional measures that incorporate the role of private operators managing highway toll roads. This outcome is important as it provides policy
implications that can be implemented to reduce deaths due to road traffic accidents that are currently on the rise.