- By Eniola Dabiri
Lagos is a rapidly growing and bustling city where everyone daily focuses on varied pursuits. However, one significant issue that often gets overlooked is random and careless parking of vehicles. This problem impacts people’s daily activities in diverse ways. While this may seem like a minor inconvenience at first glance, its effects transcend the immediate frustration of finding a parking spot or the attendant’s gridlock.
This seemingly unharmful issue weaves into the fabric of daily lives, subtly disrupting the equilibrium and affecting everything from emergency response times to business growth and the effective implementation of government policies.
For instance, parking in an undesignated parking spot might seem harmless until the ripple effects begin to impact emergency response times (by causing delays), hinder business growth (by reducing accessibility), and complicate the implementation of government policies (by straining the limited available resources or complicating implementation).
Indiscriminate parking comes with attendant harsh and depressing implications on commuters and pedestrian movements. Since roads have suddenly become excessively narrow as a result of vehicles that are parked on either side, the safety of commuters and pedestrians become seriously compromised.
Many have lost their lives while jogging or walking along the road. No thanks to roadside parking! Consequently, many who would have loved to engage in walking for pleasure and fitness have to think twice before engaging in such a risky venture.
No matter how much energy is put into courting foreign and local investments, the enabling environment must, first and foremost, be created before such investment can thrive. Traffic gridlock is, no doubt, bad for business. And roadside parking is partly responsible for most of the traffic gridlock in Lagos.
There is, of course, also a huge implication for emergencies. Consider, for instance, a medical emergency where an ambulance, rushing an accident victim to the hospital, faces severe delays due to a gridlock caused by randomly parked vehicles. Such obstructions can exacerbate a patient’s condition.
This writer once watched a pregnant woman in labour rushed into the car by her desperate husband, hoping to quickly get her to the hospital. Sadly, this apparently simple task was complicated because of a few wrongly parked cars at the entrance of their house.
Perhaps more saddening is the fact that illegal parking hampers the swift intervention of first responders during emergencies. For instance, it makes it tougher for firefighters and other first responders to navigate their way through locations of fire disasters. This often results in valuable time lost, and sometimes needless loss of lives and properties.
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It is, thus, clear that indiscriminate parking can encumber the operations of emergency workers, and worsen health conditions. Interestingly, nobody pays attention to the deadly but superficially harmless act of random parking as a major hindrance to smooth emergency operations.
Parking issues can significantly impact businesses, often in ways we might not immediately notice. In the business world, where every minute counts and first impressions matter most, even a supposedly innocuous parking problem can disrupt important meetings, cost valuable deals, and strain professional relationships.
Haphazard parking can obstruct access to key business locations. This may result in missed appointments, failed deals, and ultimately, lost opportunities. The ripple effects of these disruptions go beyond individual businesses; it impacts the broader economic environment.
While it may not seem obvious, this could slow down economic growth, cause needless stress, and bring about unnecessary conflicts.
No matter how robust and future-focused the traffic management initiatives of the government are, ostensibly simple activities such as illegal parking can thwart these efforts if not properly managed.
It is commendable that the Lagos State government is keen on implementing a carefully designed parking management system, as evidenced by the creation of the Parking Authority and Parking Policy. However, these renewed efforts in parking management might not yield the expected results if people do not embrace a proper parking culture.
We all speak so highly of the so-called ‘saner societies’ where things work fine. What we always forget to note is that those societies are strictly governed by extant laws and rules. Breaking such rules attracts heavy penalties that cannot be escaped, no matter how influential or well-connected you are.
The saner society that we all clamour for can only become a reality when everyone joins hands together to always do the right thing. No matter the commitment of the government toward solving the state’s peculiar traffic challenge, all will amount to nothing without the backing of the residents.
We must always be willing to do the right thing. Nothing works fine in a chaotic environment. Lagosians are, therefore, urged to imbibe a good parking culture that not only aligns with the existing regulations but also puts the welfare of others into consideration. This is the only way that we can all live to enjoy the ‘Greater Lagos’ of our collective aspiration.
The Lagos State government, through the Lagos State Parking Authority (LASPA), is ever-committed to transforming parking management. By leveraging thorough urban planning, significant infrastructure investment, and a strong parking policy, the government is working with all stakeholders to provide innovative and sustainable solutions to parking.
The establishment of LASPA and the introduction of the Lagos State Parking Policy underscore the government’s determination to tackle parking issues with a strategic, science-based approach.
On the whole, the need to embrace a civilized and properly regulated parking culture cannot be over-emphasized, given the complex and indispensable nature of the transport sector in Lagos. By the time all the ongoing initiatives of the government aimed at efficiently regulating parking in the state become visible and effective, coupled with renewed efforts to promote an intermodal transport system, it is expected that more robust public transportation would evolve in the state and Lagosians would be the better for it.
But then, we all need to join hands with the government to make this dream a reality by protecting public infrastructure as well as strictly adhering to all traffic rules and regulations.
•Dabiri is of the Public Affairs Unit, Lagos State Parking Authority (LASPA), Ikeja, Lagos.
