Stoplights in Iringa town

 

Main crosswalk

 

The humble stoplight, a benchmark of development indicating the need to control traffic for both vehicles and pedestrians. For the longest time I enjoyed describing Iringa as a rural town, sizeable and significant for the area, but more of a big village than a small city. I always liked to highlight the fact that we did not even have a stoplight, unlike town like Morogoro, Mbeya, and Arusha. Well, that has changed with the recent installation of two stoplights in town.

The installations have not gone without issue. When I first passed through I noticed that the entire system was out of sync with both the traffic (in both directions) and the pedestrians, so instead of meeting an automated system that everyone trusts, I met the typical frantic eye contact between drivers and pedestrians to help us navigate right of way. I am sure they will get the system corrected in due time and hopefully it will be helpful for pedestrians. I am not sure Iringa has the volume of vehicle traffic to necessitate a stoplight but perhaps it's some urban planning foresight?