Uganda Road Fund (URF), as the agency mandated to finance routine and periodic maintenance of all public roads, strives to ensure that its operations are designed for the provision of the best services to road users by maintaining a high degree of responsiveness to their needs. URF, therefore, undertakes periodic road user satisfaction surveys as a mechanism through which road users can provide feedback to the Fund and its stakeholders on the quality of service provision in the road asset.
The 2021 Road User Satisfaction Survey is the 8th of its kind in Uganda and the 3rd to be undertaken by URF. The survey involves randomly selecting and interviewing road users at predetermined points on all categories of public roads, including national roads, which UNRA manages, Kampala City roads managed by KCCA, District roads controlled by the various Districts, and Urban roads managed by Municipal Authorities, Cities and Town Councils. The 8th in the RUSS series in Uganda, between March and April 2021.
A sample of 5,460 road users from 7 road user groups, namely pedestrians; cyclists; motorcyclists; passengers; SUV/saloon car drivers; bus/matatu drivers; and truck drivers, shall be targeted for an interview during the survey.
The overall objective of the RUSS is to provide outcome accountability and a monitoring mechanism through which road users provide feedback to providers of services in the road sector. Specific objectives of the 8th RUSS are fourfold: (i)To determine the level of road user satisfaction on public roads by different road user groups; (ii)To evaluate the performance of agencies designated for public road maintenance in meeting road user expectations; (iii)To establish the challenges experienced by users of public roads and propose recommendations to service providers for improvement; (iv) To monitor changes in experiences of road users on the different categories of roads and on specific roads.
The RUSS is a national survey and will therefore be undertaken in Kampala City and each of the four regions of the country: Northern, Eastern, Central, and Western regions. Kampala has been treated as a separate region primarily because of being the capital; it is the business and transport hub of the region.
Key aspects of the survey will be general satisfaction with the road network; rating of the performance of road agencies on various aspects, rating of availability of roadside services and amenities, road users’ perceptions about road safety, driver behaviour, and opinions on cross-cutting issues in the sector among others.
The survey will feature 160 road links spread across the 5 regions. Therefore, 32 road links shall be sampled from each region (8 roads on DUCAR and 24 roads on UNRA networks) as well as 96 roads on the UNRA network nationally. An equal number of paved and unpaved roads shall be sampled on each network. The findings will be disseminated in the 1st Quarter of the new financial year 2021/22.
