Traveling the roads of Africa comes with many challenges. The main objective is to reach your destination safely. This continent is one of the global road accident hotspots. The number of traffic fatalities is approximately quarter Of the number of victims worldwide, Less than 4% of the world’s car fleet.
The situation in sub-Saharan Africa is particularly dire. Traffic accidents affect this area more than anyone else In the world. the The traffic accident death rate is 27 per 100,000 people. The population is three times higher than the European average of 9 people and significantly higher than the world average of 18 people.
Next is Africa’s road infrastructure. Despite the recent rise in prices investment When it comes to road development, the quality of roads in many African countries is generally poor.
This was captured in research reportWorld Economic Forum investigation and the International Monetary Fund. Cross-country road quality ranking.
Accidents and bad roads aren’t the only things that make traveling unpleasant. Another problem is the lack of toilets. If nature calls to you while traveling on the roads of Africa, you will be in deep trouble.
When authorities plan roads and transport options, they rarely include access to adequate, safe and clean toilets.
In 2020, public interest lawyer Adrian Kamoto Njenga said: successfully filed a lawsuit Some authorities in Kenya are forcing travelers to provide toilets.
It is not a problem unique to Africa. Similar challenges exist in the following areas: us and England.
The difference is that in those places, researcher is building knowledge about the problem of Support for influencing and demanding change.
I am a Senior Research Fellow in Mobility Governance in the Transport Research Unit at the University of Oxford. My research interest is toilet access within mobility systems. in recent papersWe focused on the traffic safety benefits of toilets.
I argue that providing drivers with reasonable and reliable access to the toilet can provide road safety benefits comparable to enforcing laws against drunk and fatigued driving.
We searched academic databases such as Scopus and reviewed several papers. We found that improving driver access to toilets is a largely unexplored road safety strategy in Africa.
However, safe driving can be enhanced by reducing driver distraction and other dangerous driving behaviors that lead to road traffic accidents.
The losses caused by traffic accidents in Africa are enormous. Not long ago, the African Union was lamenting that it was running out of estimated funds. 2% of member countries’ GDP per year.
To control this problem, we need to invest in a wide range of interventions, including unconventional interventions such as making it easier for drivers to ‘start’ on the road.
Also read: Can Kenya become a Marshall Plan model for TVET employment and wealth creation for African youth?
Traffic safety benefits of toilets
Driving to go to the bathroom can be a painful experience and extremely distracting. The driver’s attention may be diverted from the road and traffic conditions, putting himself or other road users at risk.
Physical urgency can affect your judgment and reaction to dangerous situations.
When distracted and in a heightened sense of urgency, drivers are more likely to become frustrated and speed, drive erratically, or attempt to drive recklessly to get to the nearest place of safety.
Research has shown that people who are unable to urinate when their bladder is full experience cognitive or attention problems such as: being awake 24 hours a day.
The decline in cognitive function associated with an extreme urge to urinate is comparable to an increase in blood alcohol concentration. 0.05% level.
This is equivalent to or exceeds Tunisia’s blood alcohol concentration limit (0.05%). Sudan and Mauritania (0%); Morocco (0.02%); Mali (0.03%), Madagascar (0.04%), etc. African countries impose obligations on drivers.
All of this makes it clear that driving to go to the bathroom is just as dangerous as driving drunk or fatigued. It also suggests that increasing access to toilets could have road safety benefits comparable to enforcing laws against drunk and fatigued driving.
Toilets should be integrated into road development and transportation systems.
Also read: Educating Africa by Making it Work – A Handbook for Economic Success
It’s time to invest in restroom access within your mobility system
First, continental governments can build more public toilets. Africa is one of the key locations of global toilet poverty.
According to the World Health Organization, some people 779 million people on the continent Lack of reasonable and reliable access to adequate, safe and clean toilets.
Building more public toilets will help address not only mobility poverty but also general toilet poverty across the continent.
Refreshingly, in Ghana, for example, private developers are investing in: Rest area along the highway. These social road transport infrastructures serve as places for commuters to relax, access goods and services, and socialize during breaks.
There are often toilets that travelers can access for a fee. Governments can explore ways to expand these private provisions and support them to become more affordable.
However, rest areas are often located in the suburbs. Most drivers and other road users operate in cities.
If they need to use the restroom while out and about, some drivers and other urban commuters may utilize restroom facilities located at gas stations, hotels, restaurants, banks, coffee shops, hair salons, and other establishments in the city.
Not much is known about their cost, safety, cleanliness, location, or the embarrassment associated with using them. Researchers need to investigate these issues and share their findings with the public.
If more people become aware of this issue, a change in mindset could occur to demand and support better access to toilets as part of mobility policies.
Festival Godwin BoatengSenior Researcher, oxford university
This article is republished from conversation Under Creative Commons License. please read original article.
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