As I live somewhere in the vicinity of Thika Road, I always take it for granted that it is easy for anyone else unfamiliar with the road to make sense of how to get to your ultimate destination anywhere along that superhighway! After all it is well marked with various road signages, numbered exits and off ramps and other assorted road furniture and basically everything to make the savvy person get to where they need to be. How wrong I was!
It was while talking to a colleague recently that it dawned on me that it is not as easy as it seems to the uninitiated to get by on Thika Road and it is apparently now one of the most feared of roads to those unfamiliar with its since “you could easily find yourself in Thika” as was exclaimed to me by my colleague.
Let us just take an example of getting to and getting out of Safari Park Hotel which was easy in the days gone by since you just turned left off Thika Road on the Thika bound side of the dual carriageway when you got to the hotel signpost. When leaving the hotel you exited onto Thika Road drove a few meters and then turned right onto the city bound side of the dual carriageway to find yourself safely homeward bound. Not anymore because now if you miss your exit you will have to spend a great deal of time getting back to the hotel.
For starters, the multi-lane highway and service roads for much of the Thika Road development is a one way system. No oncoming vehicles are allowed to hamper the flow of traffic though boda bodas and some psychotic motorists often do so very foolishly and obviously without due regard to their safety and that of other road users. All the exits are now indicated well in advance clearly showing which destination each exit will take you to and with arrows to show those unable to understand what to do. I suppose the developers of this road in all their wisdom assumed that all the motorists using the road are literate enough to read signs and have been to a driving school and understand the basic Highway Code and what all road signs mean though this may be a little far-fetched given the zig zag maneuvers of many drivers caught on the wrong outside lane and desperate to get to the inside correct lane for them to exit the highway safely !
Back to how you get to Safari Park Hotel. You are required to leave the highway on Exit 7 (any of the earlier exits will get you there along the service road), well-marked with the various places it takes you to including Safari Park Hotel. Follow the service road until the top of the Broadways overpass then make a left turn towards Uchumi ‘Jipange’ following the roundabout that takes you onto the service road leading all the way to Safari Park Hotel. If you miss Exit 7 to Safari Park, the next one is Exit 8 which goes to Kasarani area and Kamiti Road. You will be forced to use this exit double back under the Kasarani underpass get back onto Thika Road then go all the way back to Exit 7 and then right onto the Broadways overpass to use the service road past Uchumi ‘Jipange’ to ultimately get you to Safari Park, almost 5 kilometres longer than using the correct exit.
The above scenario is replicated for much of the length of the (super) highway and one will need to be keenly aware of what the road signs are telling you and what you are expected to do given that the developers recognized the challenges they would face if they made it easy for motorists (read PSV drivers) to just drive over the road divide (where possible) if you bypassed your exit and therefore erected huge curb stones and road dividers that even the most determined and foolhardy PSV driver would think twice before trying to tackle.
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