With over four million cars and 100,000 commercial vehicles on the roads (the national average is 11 vehicles per kilometre), Lagos daily records an average of 227 vehicles per every kilometre of roads. One of the major fallouts of this scenario is the unending and highly scary Lagos traffic gridlock. Areas mostly affected by the traffic gridlock include Apapa, Orile-Mile 2-Badagry axis, the Alimosho conurbation, Lagos Island, Ojota-Ketu-Mile 12-Ikorodu axis among others.
Like it is with most cosmopolitan cities across the world, it is, perhaps, not strange that Lagos experiences continuous queues of vehicles, which block an entire network of intersecting streets, bringing traffic in all directions to a complete standstill. Popularly referred to in local parlance as ‘go slow’, traffic gridlock has become one of the sour identities of Lagos, which succeeding governments in the state have been trying to do away with. In an attempt to tackle the traffic problem, the state government, in the last 16 years, has rehabilitated and reconstructed major roads across the state.
Furthermore, many agencies were created mainly to deal with the traffic situation in the metropolis. The Lagos Traffic Radio initiative is also an integral part of the arrangement to address traffic congestion in the state.
In-spite of this, however, the traditional Lagos traffic gridlock has continued unabated. To effectively address the transportation and traffic challenges of a complex mega city such as Lagos, the issue of mass transit has to be properly and effectively brought into the picture. One of the major causes of traffic gridlock in Lagos could be traced to the dearth of an effective and efficient mass transit system. It is essentially because many Lagosians do not have sufficient confidence in public transportation that makes virtually everyone who owns a car to put it on the road. The result is that there are more vehicles on Lagos roads than any other major city in Africa. This, of course, is partly responsible for the chaos that we experience on a daily basis on our roads. Irrespective of the works so far done in the area of road expansion and rehabilitation by the state government, if nothing is done to reduce the number of vehicles that ply Lagos roads, daily traffic gridlock would continue to be a biting reality.
Consequently, there is an urgent need to expand the operational scope of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system. Though the system does not use all the features of some of the renowned BRT systems across the world, it still has many advantages over the traditional bus system. Universally, the BRT system has the capability of moving huge numbers of people from one place to the other at a time in a faster and more convenient way. The system operates on the concept of utilizing dedicated lanes in areas where competition with highway traffic would be greatest while it makes use of existing highways and roads in areas that are less congested in order to reduce costs.
The BRT scheme, if well expanded and strategically developed could help in drastically reducing traffic gridlock in the state. A first step towards achieving this would be for the state government to inject over 1000 brand new busses into the already existing fleet of the scheme. Once this is done, the next strategy would be for the operatives of the system to create more routes across the state for the scheme to thrive better and meet more needs. In creating these new routes, priority should be given to areas with greater population density such as Badagry, Mowe-Ibafo axis, Sango-Ota axis, Alimosho among others.
Additionally, the BRT scheme could be planned to include commuting within short distances within a particular local government or location. For instance, people commuting within Apapa, Ikeja, Lagos Island, Alimosho, Yaba, etc. could rely on BRT buses within the locations for their daily and routine movement. Once this is done and the operation of BRT in these locations becomes credible, effective and efficient, more commuters would opt to leave their cars at home and would willingly embrace the BRT alternative. For the system to become more reliable, effective arrangements must be made for constant repair and refurbishment of buses in the BRT fleet. A well-planned culture of maintenance must be embraced and strictly adhered to. The sorry state of some of the busses in the BRT fleet makes this quite imperative.
With time, especially with an effective and efficient BRT inspired mass transit system in place, government should make efforts to gradually phase out commercial buses (Danfo) on Lagos roads. A large percentage of the chaos that we daily witness on Lagos roads are partly caused by commercial vehicles. In Lagos State, it is not uncommon to see commercial vehicles illegally parked on either side of the road. Some even drive in such careless fashions that make nonsense of traffic laws while others drive on or across the road median. In Lagos, the recklessness of commercial bus operatives is legendary.
Public transportation is too important and strategic to be left in the hands of a poorly organised set of individuals. This could jeopardize our renewed drive for foreign and local investments in the state. The traffic situation of every city determines the volume of investment that is attracted to the city. No sane investor would want to put his money in a place that is renowned for irresponsible traffic behaviour. It is, therefore, imperative, all other things being equal, for the state government to address the nagging question of commercial busses in the state, once and for all. To avoid any public outcry that such step might attract, especially from transport unions, willing commercial bus owners and drivers could be incorporated into the enlarged BRT system to avoid job losses.
Similarly, we need to strictly enforce, to the letter, the 2012 Lagos Traffic Law, especially the sections that have to do with the restriction of the operations of commercial motorcycle’s operators in 495 designated strategic highways and routes out of a total number of 9,700 available routes within the metropolis. Compounding the disorderliness on Lagos roads is the activities of commercial motorcycles. The menace commercial motorcycles constitute to the public transport system is manifested in disobedience of traffic law, carrying more than a passenger, ridding without the use of helmet, indiscriminate use of horn, driving unregistered motorcycles and without license, destruction of road facilities and physical attack on other road users. These are in addition to ferrying arms and ammunition for criminals who use them for nefarious and life-threatening activities.
We need to commit more investments into the ferry system if we are to properly address Lagos’ underutilization of water as a means of transport. The ferry system currently only carries about 18,000 people, even though about one-fifth of the city is made up of water in the form of lagoons, creeks and the Atlantic Ocean. Creation of new jetties will compliment the existing ferry infrastructure. Until we increase our investment in water transport, the innate water transportation potential of Lagos State would continue to be grossly under- utilized and as such chaos would always continue to be the culture on our roads.
Additionally, the Lagos Light Rail project needs to be expanded. Major mega cities of the world operate on an effective light rail transport scheme which is cheaper and faster and has the capacity to move more people at a time. It has the capacity to capture up to seven times as many passengers daily as the BRT system. We need to attract interested foreign investors to come up with the needed funding and technical expertise that would make the vision of a light-rail scheme for Lagos a reality. Without a doubt, the introduction of an effective and efficient rail system could further ease traffic congestion and help meet the rising demand for affordable mass transit in the metropolis. Integration between multiple transport solutions will offer Lagosians a greater variety of mass transit options, and will improve quality of life and the ease of doing business in the city.
‘The introduction of an effective and efficient rail system could further ease traffic congestion and help meet the rising demand for affordable mass transit in the metropolis”
