INFLUENCE OF ROAD USERS’ SAFETY AWARENESS ON ROAD SAFETY PROJECTS PERFORMANCE IN KENYA

Abstract

The road safety in Kenyan roads and especially in relations to the public road safety continues to be of concern to the government and other diverse stakeholders. The number of road fatalities were 1, 344 pedestrians, 339 drivers, 668 passengers, 637 motor cycle fatalities, and 69 pedal cyclists in 2015. These numbers illustrates the state of road safety in Kenya. The country continues to face relatively high cases of accidents and fatalities despite the formation of NTSA. The study’s objective was to determine the influence of road users’ safety awareness on performance of road safety projects in Kenya. A descriptive research design was utilized. The target population consisted of people with information on the road safety projects performance in Nakuru including the drivers, pedestrians, motor cyclists, motor vehicle passengers, NTSA officials and traffic police officers. A sample of 353 respondents calculated using the Fisher formula was utilized. The study sought to know on average which road users’ safety awareness aspects among safety belts, responsible drinking, speeding campaigns, road signage adherence, and presence of black spots have played a significant role in performance of road safety projects. On average, the respondents tended to agree that all the metrics on road users’ safety awareness played a significant role in performance of road safety projects (3.5< μ < 4.5). There was moderate consensus among the respondents that each metric on average road users’ safety awareness aspects had played a significant role in performance of road safety projects (σx ≥1). The study recommends that the government of Kenya undertakes more road safety awareness efforts in order for the road users to utilize the road responsibly.