The Lagos traffic condition gets worse by the day. The bridges to Apapa Port have become parking lots for trailers and tankers, thus causing gridlock around Apapa, to the extent that residents have issued an ultimatum to the governments—federal and state—to rid the bridges of illegal parking within 21 days. Barring this, the residents plan to shut down Apapa to all traffic. The rest of Lagos is equally problematic traffic-wise.
Without doubt, all the ingredients for chaotic traffic exist in Lagos: about 20 million residents; only 4,000 traffic wardens; 2 million vehicles; a regular police force better known for complicating traffic management through a ‘stop and search’ verification of vehicle registration; avalanche of traffic from Okada/Keke riders contemptuous of traffic laws; bad roads; and absence of mass transit system within Lagos. Certainly, the traffic situation in Lagos calls for new thinking, but the announcement by the Lagos Commissioner of Transport about formation of a new squad, Rapid Traffic Intervention Squad (RTIS) does not match the kind of innovative thinking required to address the perennial traffic problems ofLagos.
In the first place, there are enough traffic police/parapoliceagencies. Apart from LASTMA, the police have mounted Operation Velvet, designed to regulate Lagos traffic through operation ‘stop and see vehicle registration papers.’ It is not surprising that citizens have kicked against this measure which is more likely to cause more gridlock than not. But it is reassuring that the police have suspended this intervention for 30 days.However, the police ought to re-think the stop and search mode, as it is bound to aggravate the traffic situation in the City-State.
Like the proposed RTIS, Operation Velvet is not the way toward a better traffic situation in Lagos. What is needed is a commitment or will by the government at the federal and state levels to make existing traffic management schemes work effectively while adding new mass traffic systems. Creating a new agency to solve the problem that an existing agency cannot solve shows lack of imagination. It is not the sound bites about new traffic agencies that matter; it is providing existing agencies the morale, tools and resources needed to do their work. Limiting management of traffic to 4,000 wardens in a city with many bad roads across Lagos and clogged bridges to Apapais a myopic approach to a multi-dimensional problem. Hiring more wardens, motivating them and providing all traffic wardens with periodic training in traffic management are better than creating a new agency.
For the short-term, federal and state governments should fix bad roads to make traffic flow better. Instead of establishing a new squad that will be provided with motorcycles to provide rapid intervention, LASTMA staff should be given proper incentives to the job for which they already have experience. In addition, the governments—federal and state—ought to address the grievances of residents of Apapa immediately. Ignoring the problem of trailers and trucks on bridges in and out of Apapa is not going to solve the problems of gridlock in Apapa and its environs.
It is a no brainer that managing traffic in a city of 20 million residents without train facilities is a herculean task. The most effective way toend the awful traffic situation in Lagos is to have a truly mass transit system that will prevent millions of residents from traveling in cars and mini-buses. Meanwhile, the police need to look for a more creative way to ensure that vehicles have proper registration, asit is done in many cities across the globe, without having to disrupt the flow of traffic through a stop and search scheme.Similarly, the Federal Road Safety Commission and Vehicle Inspection Officers should be encouraged to restrict their operations to inter-state roads, instead of adding to the snarling of traffic in a city already suffocated by vehicles.
