Transport and vehicle characteristics in the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Abstract

Paper presented at the 23rd Annual Southern African Transport Conference 12 - 15 July 2004 "Getting recognition for the importance of transport", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa. Dar es Salaam city is the principal center of administration, social and economic activities in Tanzania. With a population of over 2.5 million people in total area of 1,300 square kilometres, Dar es Salaam city is among the most highly populated areas of Tanzania. The city is believed to accommodate nearly half of the total road vehicles in the country. A government owned bus transporter (UDA) and a fleet of private operators commonly known as “Daladala” provide city public transport. The city is served by approximately 1,150km of roads network system of a hierarchy of arterial, collector and local roads. The local roads comprise most of the network, constituting 81 percent of total classified roads. While all arterial roads are paved, the figure for collector and local roads is 80 percent and 39 percent respectively. The current efforts of road maintenance under assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will reduce the percentage of deteriorated roads to about 67 percent. This paper describes the findings of a research that was carried out in the city of Dar es Salaam to obtain vehicle operating characteristics. The study involved 427 vehicles (105 cars, 140 buses, 142 trucks and 40 motor cycles). Research findings established typical vehicle operating characteristics in cities of the developing world. Of important, the characteristics established include vehicle makes and conditions thereof, distance traveled per day, average fuel consumption per day, vehicle operating cost, roads condition and roads congestion, vehicle maintenance, drivers’ behaviour and social aspects. The paper concludes by recommending ways to improve the negative characteristics.