No, thika road did not make people to buy cars, it made the use of the road more attractive and many opened their wallets to pay 18bob per liter to GoK to enjoy the convinience..Thika road's profitability is driven by its own business case..its cheap to use, cheap to maintain and though there are many ways to reach nairobi from thika, its still the most efficient..
SGR on the other hand is expensive than road, expensive to maintain, inconvinient to cargo owners and relys on taxpayer money for subsidy