

Bringing Transit to Nairobi's Streets - samvermette
https://medium.com/@transitapp/hello-nairobi-cc27bb5a73b7

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mattm
I lived in Nairobi for the summer of 2004 (in Buru Buru for half the time and
then in Kibera on the map) and I would have loved to have this information at
the time. Taking the matatu into town was always a fun experience. I came just
after they implemented strict laws that limited passengers to the number of
seatbelts. This opened up business for a lot more matatu operators but
congested the roads. Before there may be double the number of people per
matatu standing or hanging off the sides.

It was incredible to me how each matatu basically had its own personality.
Some would be quiet like riding on a normal bus in North America. But then you
would have the party matatus that would be fully painted and blasting out
music at 9am in the morning and the tout would be lauging and joking with all
the passengers or singing.

I was on an exchange program and stayed with host families. While waiting for
matutus to take us into town, even though there were so many, they basically
recognized all of them. I would say, "What about this one?" and they would say
that it was going somewhere else or that you can't trust them.

At night, when coming home there was usually a 30-60 minute lineup just to get
on one and then it could take another 60 minutes to get home when the normal
time was just 20 minutes.

~~~
okal
Matatus _always_ have route markers, in your case, 23 for Buru Buru. There's
no magic to it.

~~~
mchiteri
Matatus going to Buru Buru have traditionally been marked as route # 58.
Number 23 goes to Bahati and Jericho, Jerusalem up to utmost Buru Buru phase
II, then take Outering road to "Civil Servants". I live in Nairobi :)

~~~
okal
Buru Buru Ph. II in _Buru Buru_ ;-) The tone of the article rubbed me the
wrong way, had a bit of that "White guy who discovered Mt. Kenya" vibe. I may
have unfairly read some of that into the parent comment. Well aware of 58 as
well.

~~~
wkimeria
That was my problem with it too.

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wkimeria
I think saying that cars are limited to the citys elites is overstating the
case a bit. There are quite a few middle class families with cars. The problem
is twofold

1: The collapse of the public bus system (KBS or Kenya Bus Service) in the
early 90s 2: The lack of any investment in infrastructure since at least the
70s. There are a bunch of reasons (IMF structural adjustment, corruption, poor
planning etc)

I'm kenyan and remember that in the 80s it was relatively quick for me to get
to downtown Nairobi, or to School (for anyone who knows Nairobi, I was
commuting from South B to Nairobi Primary School). I could either have my
parents drop me (they worekd in the CBD and drove there), take a bus to
downtown Nairobi and walk to school from there or take another bus to school
(I used to opt to walk the 2nd leg and buy these really terrible SciFi books
'Perry Rhodhan' that were translated to English from German, but thats another
story...).

In 1980, the bus/matatu ride from South B to Downtown Nairobi (near Standard
Chatered bank) took about 10-12 minutes. The last time I did this (in 2010, I
needed to get from South B to the National Archives in the CBD so I hopped a
#11 Matatu), it took 2 hours, and that was not in rush hour traffic. I could
have gotten out and walked there faster (and regularly used to do so in the
80s, but everything is fenced off and over-built). The next day I drove with
my mum and same thing (South B to Kariokor), there is literally no way of
avoiding spending a large amount of your life sitting in traffic, and it
boggles my mind that there are cities that are worse (i.e mexico City)

There are simply too many cars for the infrastructure. And in a really bone-
headed move, some time ago the government decided to solve this problem by
banning public service vehicles (buses and matatus) from the Central Business
District, but private cars were allowed. Of course this was so the rich could
travel un-impeded. The plan didn't last due to the outcry, but that shows you
the priorities of the politicians.

But if it meets its promise, this app would be truly amazing and useful. And
the name (Hakuna Matatu), you have to understand Swahili to appreciate the
pure awesomeness of that pun.

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chrismealy
Human Transit had a great guest post on transit Lusaka, Zambia:

[http://www.humantransit.org/2013/08/guest-post-on-lusaka-
tra...](http://www.humantransit.org/2013/08/guest-post-on-lusaka-
transportation-for-human-transit.html)

~~~
chipsy
I remember this post because it outlined the limitations of informal,
privately operated systems: They tend to have physically centralized hubs that
are overserved, because the operators can guarantee customers at those stops,
while outlying regions are missing direct connections - all routes go
downtown, is the rule.

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ant6n
It seems rather counter-intuitive that a city with no formal transit, and thus
no actual schedules could be meaningfully integrated in a scheduling app. But
I guess the matatu drivers have to follow pretty fixed routes because they
have to follow the expectation of their users. That is, their pre-existing
knowledge about where the buses go.

