Many parts of Africa are under constant development; more houses, more apartment buildings, more business towers and inevitably, more roads. However, as cities grow in many low and middle-income countries, road safety is being neglected when transport is developed leading to disastrous results. Tom Bishop, Africa director for Amend writes for Guardian Development about this area of focus in Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania.

A group of academics at Tanzania‘s Ardhi University this year produced a masterplan for the transformation of Dar es Salaam into one of Africa‘s next megacities. Their inspiration was Singapore, with its ambitious building projects, skyscrapers, bridges and ringroads.

Dar is already one of Africa’s boomtowns – it is the second-fastest-growing city in Africa after Lagos, forecast to double in size to more than 7 million people by 2025. And it contributes around 40% of Tanzania’s GDP, which is growing by more than 7% each year.

Yet while Dar es Salaam might aspire to be the next Singapore, the differences between the two cities are starkly apparent when it comes to the number of people who die on their roads. At least 480 people were killed on the streets of Tanzania’s commercial capital last year. In Singapore, 195 lost their lives, even though Singapore has a population of about 5 million, compared with Dar’s 3.5 million. 

Unless something changes, the number of deaths and injuries on Dar es Salaam’s roads will increase as the city grows. Dar’s city centre is a riot of cranes and construction sites. Road-building projects are under way all around the city – to the north, south and west – and a bridge will soon link the existing urban area to the massively underdeveloped Kigamboni to the east.

But for those planning, designing and constructing the roads, it seems that vehicles are their top priority, rather than people. Perhaps it is because these people are part of the small but growing middle class who can afford cars – they are thinking about ease of access for a minority, but not of the vast majority of people who will never have a means of transport other than to walk, cycle or use the overcrowded, dirty and dangerous public transport system.

Narrow dirt roads, which wind through sprawling unplanned residential areas, are being paved – the tarmac squeezing out pedestrians and leaving no room for footpaths. People have little choice other than to walk on the roads, with cars flying past on one side, and deep, dangerous storm drains on the other. These new roads are deathtraps, especially after dark when the congestion has eased, the traffic police have gone home and the drink-drivers treat the streets as their own.

Elsewhere in the city, roads are being widened with no traffic management systems, parked cars block footpaths, traffic lights function intermittently due to frequent power cuts, and an increasing number of motorcycle taxis are being driven by unlicensed, untrained young men.

People in Dar want safe roads. The dirt road outside my house was upgraded last week, transforming it from potholes and craters, where cars could barely go faster than 5mph, to a smooth, compacted surface used as a rat-run by speeding taxis, 4x4s and cheap Chinese motorbikes. Within a day, the local community had dug up parts of the road to create informal speed bumps, and had scattered rocks and disused tyres to slow the movement of traffic in an attempt to keep themselves and their children safe.

I have seen riots at schools after a pupil has been killed or injured. It is becoming increasingly common for children to lie down in the roads, forcing traffic to stop until the police and local MP arrive, promising speed bumps. But doing this after the event is too late.

The government and donor partners have many admirable plans to improve road safety. A national road safety strategy (pdf) and a road safety and traffic bill have been drafted. A national road safety agency is being established. But while these initiatives are being discussed in the conference rooms of five-star hotels, out on the roads people continue to die every day.

Change is needed, and fast; it need not be grand or expensive. Children need to get to school safely, and through our work on road safety in the city we have found that even small steps, such as projects to develop low-cost road safety infrastructure around schools and distribute reflector-enhanced school bags, make a difference.

The growth of Dar es Salaam is inevitable, but why lives should be put at risk in the name of development? The planning and development of the city needs to consider everyone – not only the small proportion of people who own cars. Road infrastructure needs to provide for all types of user, including the majority: pedestrians and cyclists, children and elderly people. Let’s not throw away lives and threaten the safety, health and quality of life of millions of ordinary people in our race towards skyscrapers and ringroads. Let’s build cities for people.

Our first spotlight of the new year focuses on an innovative young drivers’ magazine based in the UK. Its designer and creator, John Billington created the magazine to intertwine young people’s passion for driving and cars with safe messages. This, added to a sleek, vibrant and youthful design makes it an attractive publication. We talk to Rev magazine’s creator here.

So what motivates you to be involved in road safety, especially young drivers?
I became particularly interested in young drivers after meeting Vicki Stone who had formed the charity “Learn and Live” after her daughter Kate had been tragically killed in a car crash.

I remember one day having a pile of school photos to scan in for a leaflet. They were all of teenagers who’d died in crashes – the fact they were real photos just like the ones of my own children really brought it home to me. As I worked more with Vicki I realised the appalling thing about these tragedies was that they were usually so similar, so predictable and I thought we could be doing so much more to stop them from happening in the first place. You only need to check the web and realise these sort of tragedies are happening across the world on a daily basis.

What’s the background to your publication Rev online?
I’d worked on several editions of Rev which were printed in the traditional way.  The latest magazine is completely online which means that anyone anywhere can read it for free! It can feature Youtube clips, which is ideal when you consider how much time the average young person spends on the internet it’s an inevitable route to go down.

I also use celebrity interviews. I like these as a contrast to the anonymous voice that tells you should and shouldn’t do. Obviously we can line up the questions and delete any answers we don’t like! I used Richard Hammond and James May from “Top Gear” in the latest magazine. They’re both extremely famous in the UK and around the world for their programme so hopefully people will sit up and listen to what they’ve got to say.

When it comes to young drivers we’re trying to give them information but also attempting to address their attitudes as well. We’ve got to produce resources that are actually interesting, relevant and readable. It’s no use if we’ve said everything and they’ve heard nothing.

What do you hope to achieve through the publication?
It’s tough enough when you first start driving so you’ve got to be 100% focussed on the task in hand. The problem can be that a few months down the line you can get over confident and think it’s easier than they led you to believe!  We cover all the “hot topics” – like overcrowding, speeding, using the phone, drink and drugs etc.

How can young people get involved?

Well we’re always keen to hear from young drivers about their experiences behind the wheel and what their views are.

People can submit stories, news, views, the lot! As well as the magazine itself we also run a WordPress site, twitter feed and Facebook page so we’re always looking for stuff to put out there! Just email me at john@room9media.com

You can follow all the links and read Revonline by going to our homepage: www.room9media.com

Looking forward, YOURS encourgages to check out the messages in Rev.UK magazine and submit stories for future editions. John has given YOURS exclusive access to the magazine and we will, in the coming weeks, pull out some of the articles and feature them on our website as a special ‘Rev Feature’. To see the magazine online click here.