Kenyan Engineer Nicholas Airo has bagged the Excellence in Roads Africa award for creating an Intelligent Traffic System that helps motorists navigate traffic.

The Intelligent Traffic System uses video and sound analysis to detect which side of the road has more traffic and gives traffic from that side more green light duration compared to traffic from other sides of a road junction with fewer vehicles.

The award, presented to Airo by Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo in Ghana, is an initiative of the US-based International Road Federation and recognizes efforts towards better, safer, and smarter road systems.

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The system, a product of Airo’s company –NAS International Holdings Limited – is being piloted on parts of Nairobi roads, including Ngong Road and  Western Ring Road.

NAS International Holdings Limited had nominated Nairobi’s Ngong Road Intelligent Transport System for the award.

Speaking after receiving the award, Airo thanked the Kenyan government for deploying the system on the few Nairobi city roads and affirmed the need for innovation to curb traffic which has for years remained a headache for Kenya.

“I must appreciate what the government of Kenya is doing to open up the new project targeting ITS (Intelligent Transport System) for both the traffic control and BRT (Bus Rapid Transport) as well,” he said, as quoted by Citizen Digital.

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“We cannot keep expanding the roads and building interchanges, there is a limit on what we can handle, and that’s why Intelligent Transport Systems in traffic management is key to addressing the never-ending expansion of roads, and I appreciate what Tanzania and Ethiopia are doing for the BRT and ITS,”  added Airo.

The Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) has piloted the system on ten junctions along the Western Ring Road and Ngong Road.

The move is said to have largely helped manage traffic, although its impact is yet to be fully felt because the same roads are linked to others with manual traffic management or the old traffic lights that count down the specified time no matter how many vehicles are on the junction.