Troubled residents and motorists on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway will heave a sigh of relief following the introduction of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) by the Lagos State government on the route. But as the project progresses, motorists groan, report TAJUDEEN ADEBANJO and OLATUNDE ODEBIYI.
Traffic wardens at different interchange points battle to ensure free vehicular movements; impatient commercial motorcyclists otherwise called Okada riders beat traffic light at every given opportunity; bus conductors call their destinations and some touts working for the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) chase commercial bus (Danfo) drivers picking passengers on the road instead of queuing in the garage.
Welcome to Oshodi, the biggest terminal for commercial bus operators in the country hosting over two million passengers daily.
The craze that traffic in this axis is will soon give way with the Akinwunmi Ambode-led administration’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). It will move between Abule-Egba and Oshodi. The passengers estimate on the corridor is about 230,000 per day, but it can go up to 300,000.
BRT is a transport option, which relies on the use of dedicated ‘interference’ free segregated lanes to guarantee fast and reliable bus travel. It is a high performance public transport bus service which aims to combine bus lanes with high-quality bus stations, vehicles, amenities and branding to achieve the performance and quality of a metro system, with the flexibility, cost and simplicity of a bus system.
The BRT buses run on physically segregated lanes and thus make them faster in a situation where there is traffic congestion. It is one of the major options available to the Lagos State government to tackle the huge public transport predicaments in the state.
The regulator of the BRT scheme, the Lagos Metropolitan Transport Authority (LAMATA), has boasted that the heavily congested Oshodi-Iyana-Ipaja-Abule-Egba route would reduce by 40 per cent after the completion of the project.
The road, the prototype erected at Iyana-Ipaja, shows that it would have two BRT lanes to run in the middle, starting from Abule-Egba towards Oshodi. The service lanes of the expressway are also to be repaired and made more motorable for the Danfo buses.
A driver, Jide Oni, believed that it would have adverse effect on Danfo drivers’ business.
But a passenger, who simply identified himself as Segun said, it would ease traffic gridlock on the road.
“The way the construction was going, we might be left with just one lane. Imagine hundreds of buses packed on a single lane. The traffic might be worse than what government could think of,” Oni said.
Segun doubted his conclusion, believing that government must have done her homework well before venturing into the project.
The driver told our correspondents to look at the partition.
“This is what I’m saying Oga journalist,” he said.
After alighting at Iyana-Ipaja, the erected prototype for the project before the bridge showed two lanes for the commercial bus operators.
After speaking with some Danfo drivers and passengers at Iyana-Ipaja, who lamented the logjam at Super Bus Stop near Abule-Egba, The Nation correspondents joined another bus to the place.
There (Super Bus Stop), work has reached advance stage. Workers in LAMATA branding reflective jacket were working on drainage and demarcating concrete for the BRT lanes.
Efforts to speak with the workers on site proved abortive. They mentioned one Julian as the only person allowed to speak with press. Julian was unavailable at every spot The Nation correspondents were directed to go and see him, trekking for over 30 minutes from Super Bus stop to Abule Egba Bridge and back to the bus stop.
Some of the Danfo drivers lamented that big drainage dug at Super Bus Stop has made the place a no-go area.
“We had to look for alternative route to get to our destinations. That of course added to the already hours wasted in the traffic. It’s also affecting our delivery,” Ola Akin, a Danfo driver said.
Another Danfo driver, who did not mention his name, hailed the government for embarking on the project.
A resident in the area, Oyewole Ogunbanjo, lamented that the construction work has increased traffic in the area.
Ogunbanjo said: “Moving from Oshodi to Iyana-Ipaja is now tripled the number of hours we usually spend on the road side. The transport fare has also increased, because the traffic has made the drivers to increase the fare. The traffic is usually worse whenever it rains and it makes our journey tiring. I wish government can do something fast to ease the traffic in the area while the BRT lane construction is ongoing. There is nothing that we can do as residents to make the journey better for us, we just have to cope with it and I hope the construction would not take forever.”
He noted that the government needs to think well on some of the decisions taken on road construction.
“This Iyana-Ipaja road is small, the roads are not wide and they have come to construct BRT lane in the middle of the road. The space that would be left for other vehicles would be small. How would this gesture make transportation better in the area? If all motorists except the BRT have a narrow road to pass through, how would there not be traffic? I think the only option for government is to expand the roads. The expansion would also affect more people, because they would have to demolish some shops and houses on the road side which would make life inconvenient for others.”
He said that not everybody would make use of the BRT.
“Someone like me cannot queue for BRT, to and from my office in Oshodi every day. The long BRT queue is not what everyone can tolerate as it amounts to a waste of time. I can’t wait to enter BRT and I don’t think the construction of BRT lane would ease traffic in this area. The only thing that can ease traffic from Oshodi, through Iyana-Ipaja to Abule-Egba is train transport. If government can think of making train available along these routes, it would help to bring an end to traffic and life would be better for all,” he said.
A passerby, Azeez Bamigbose, said the BRT lane construction is presently affecting the traffic on this road, saying, it has reduced the size of the road and vehicles have to manage the little size roads left.
“We hope that the traffic on the roads would be reduced when the rods construction is completed,” he said.
A National Union Road Transport (NURTW) worker, Adegboyega Adekunle, said when the road is completed, there would be no issue between the BRT and the yellow commercial buses.
According to him, passengers would have more options on which vehicle they wish to board.
“Usually BRT is cheaper than the yellow buses, but there can be long queue at the BRT bus stops; passengers would have to choose which pays them. The BRT would have their lane while the yellow commercial buses would also have their lane. Business would continue as usual in the area. Both buses would have their own passengers and none would affect the other.
“The only fear is that government may have to expand the roads for the commercial yellow buses and other motorists, because the space left on the road, after the BRT lane is taken out would be small. Government may have to demolish some of the road side shops in order to expand the roads, else traffic would be built up on the express road,” he said.
Another passerby in the area, Adewumi Bankole, described the initiative as good.
She is, however, concerned on how the BRT lane would be constructed on the bridge that leads to Abule-Egba from Iyana-Ipaja.
A roadside trader, who simply identified herself as ‘Iya Benedict’ pleaded with government not to chase them away from their selling point.
“When the BRT lane is completed, there may be need to expand the expressway from the look of things. Government should please not make life uncomfortable for us. They should not stop us from our means of livelihood, but should do all its work considering all of us in mind,” she said.
The Nation learnt that the work would entail an uninterrupted median BRT service, 11 pedestrian bridges, one bus depot and two bus terminals to be located at Iyana Ipaja and Abule-Egba.
The BRT, according to LAMATA Managing Director Abiodun Dabiri, said: “The Oshodi-Abule Egba corridor is one of the busiest bus corridors in West Africa, with over 5,500 buses moving passengers per day. It is a critical link for millions of people living in Alimosho, Egbeda, Iyana-Ipaja, Ijaiye, up to Tollgate into Sango Ota in Ogun State.”
He noted that the route was also strategic because Oshodi, with the proposed transport interchange project, was emerging the transport hub in Lagos.
Acting Commissioner for Transport Prince Olarenwaju Elegushi said: “What we are doing along the Abule Egba axis is in line with the overall plan of the government to change the face of public transportation system in Lagos.”
Mr Kolawole Ojelabi, LAMATA’s External Relations Specialist, told The Nation that would be completed in about 15 months.
Reacting to people’s complaints on the traffic the construction is causing on the routes, Ojelabi said that cannot be avoided.
“This is why we have the officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) along the routes and the contractor’s flags men to control the traffic,” he said.
He appealed to motorists along the routes to drive with caution, obey traffic signs and avoid over speeding.
In terms of the number of lanes that would be available on for other motorists, he said two lanes would be available to them.
He admitted that the coming of BRT in the area would affect operators of Danfo buses because the state government Bus Reform Programme (BRP) is meant to take all the informal buses off the roads.
He said: “We could have medium capacity buses that would be along the axis as well as all over the state. We could have buses that could contain between 22 and 40 passengers. An average Danfo would contain about 14 passengers. If you have a bus that would take 40 passengers, it would reduce the number of buses on the road, which would in turn have an effect on our health. If we have less number of busses on the roads, the level of emission from buses would be reduced. So in a way, all these airborne diseases, including cancer and lung diseases would also reduce.
“All of these have its evaporating effect on the economy. When we have vehicles that could do turn around in good time, those who come to get jobs would be able to get jobs, one can travel far distance, and this has a lot of multiplier effect. The Danfo drivers cannot understand this now. If you know the history of BRT in Ikorodu, you would know that it was initially through some acquisition. We are not going to ban the yellow buses; they would still be running on back corridor. The public will have choices and it would be a new situation for everybody.
“It is going to be on a Public Private Participation (PPP). It is the private sector that would run the buses. That is what we have on Ikorodu road. LAMATA is not the owner of the buses; LAMATA is not the one that pays the drivers, so it is going to be thrown open to the members of the public. Those who have the capacity to run large bus operations are the ones that are going to employ the drivers. LAMATA does not want to be involved in the employment of the drivers or the operations of the buses. Ours is to provide infrastructure and make sure that we regulate the way these buses operate.
“Lagos is a state with over 20 million population; So what we are saying is that we cannot solve these problems at a go, it is something that has to be done overtime and it is something that we have done on Ikorodu road and we are perfecting it, so that when we are extending it to other corridors, all those mistakes and drawbacks that you have seen on Ikorodu road, they would be not transferred to other corridors. On the attitude of the drivers, we are currently working on it, go and look at the attitude of the drivers of Blue buses on Ikorodu road and now use that to compare with others and you will note the difference. So that tells you that we are taking it gradually. It is not something we can solve in one day.
“For the Iyana-Ipaja corridor, if you notice that picture very well, you would notice the bus stop area is bigger. There is a passing link. So if a bus is stopping at the bus stop and the buses coming do not need to stop, there is a passing link which the buses would go through.
“We would install Intelligence Transport System (ITS) to cater for a breakdown on the corridor. The driver would just press a button to alert other drivers that there is a breakdown somewhere.
“Commuters can also download BRT App. It would show you the location of different buses at different points in time, that is part of ITS. Lagos BRT that is what you would download, you would download the app and with it you can monitor how the BRT buses are operating. If you are living in Abule-Egba for instance and you want to know when the next bus is coming to Abule-Egba bus station, maybe there are six buses on the queue, one would come in seven minutes, and the other would come maybe 10, another in 15minutes. So you can decide the one you want to enter and you don’t have to wait for too long at the bus stop.”
