Sustainable CBD decongestion: Its Application in Eldoret CBD

Abstract

Third world cities are undergoing rapid growth accompanied by rapid development pressures with high demands for housing and infrastructure as a result of high population growth rates. Some of these cities are doubling in population and have more than doubled in area within the last few years. 2008 saw, for the first time in history, over half of the world’s population living in urban areas. According to current projections, these will have risen to 70% by 2050. Almost all the growth will take place in developing regions. Rodrigue (2008) asserts that the outcome (of the massive urbanization transition) has been a fundamental change in the socioeconomic environment of human activities as urbanization involves new forms of employment, economic activity and lifestyle. More and more people flock into urban centres to meet their livelihood needs. One such town in Kenya whose growth is great and expected to rise further is Eldoret in the Rift Valley Province. On one hand, the role of Eldoret Central Business District (ECBD) in the local context as a transport centre, commercial centre, administrative centre, business centre, and service centre, among others contributes to a myriad of its woes. Among the problems that have been cited to plague the ECBD in relation to these is traffic congestion. On the other hand, its importance as an international transport centre is made worse by the location of the international trunk road, the class A, A 104 Namanga-Kampala Road, right at the heart of the ECBD. Cargo freight heavy trucks en-route to various international destinations, loaded to capacity with the cargo from the Port of Mombasa, which may not have any business at the ECBD, have to pass through it.