Lagos Residents Lose 3 Billion Hours To Traffic Congestions Yearly!

Looking back at the seven years he has plied the roads within the Lagos metropolis, Kolawole Adeshina agrees that the traffic situation in the city has not improved. It has, instead, gone from bad to worse.

“Before, the traffic (congestion) no be like this, it is worse. And when they started the road, it became the worst,” says Adeshina, who plies the Ojo Barracks-Mile 2-Ojota route. As Lagos struggles to adapt to its mega city status, the worsening traffic congestion, especially in recent weeks, has continued to take its toll on the city’s residents. While the government blames it on the massive road construction and rehabilitation going on across the state as well as the ever expanding population, commuters say they are the worst hit.

Last Friday, commuters along the Agbara -Ojo Barracks axis of the Badagry expressway witnessed one of the worst gridlocks in recent times. And as is the case in such situations, transport fares shot up by more than 100 percent. “It was because of the rain. All the vehicles were following just one lane because the road was flooded,” said a commercial bus conductor plying the Agbara -Mile 2 route who had doubled the bus fare. “It is the government that caused it, they did not build gutters for the water.” 

Everyone pays the price

A study conducted in 2009 on ‘The Causes, Effects and Ameliorative Measures of Road Traffic Congestion in Lagos Metropolis’, published in the European Journal of Sciences, concluded that “traffic research still cannot fully predict under which conditions a ‘traffic jam’ (as opposed to heavy, but smoothly flowing traffic) may suddenly occur”.

Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that poor road conditions, accidents, inadequate road infrastructure, absence of integrated transport system, inadequate traffic planning and drivers’ behaviour contributed about 70% of the traffic congestion in the state.

The passengers who always feel shortchanged and at the receiving ends of such “insensitive” hikes in bus fares are not the only ones bearing the brunt, according to Adeshina. For a commercial bus plying the Ojo Barracks-Mile 2-Ojota route, he says that the daily “target” is four trips (a trip starts at Ojo Barracks through Mile 2 to Oshodi and Maryland, Ojota and then retraces back to the starting point) and, occasionally, five.

However, on a day fraught with traffic congestions, the daily target would be reduced to two or three trips. “I dey deliver N7,000 everyday (to the owner of the bus); whether traffic or not, I must deliver it,” says Adeshina. “That is why we increase fares whenever there is traffic. If you see traffic like that maybe it is two trips that you’ll go and you go still make your deliver complete. And you will still buy fuel N4, 000 (everyday), how much you wan come make?”

In a study conducted by ROM Transportation Engineering between 2007 and 2009, it was gathered that an estimated 17 million people living in Lagos lose a total of 3 billion hours to traffic congestions every year. 

At the first Lagos Traffic Management Conference organised by the Lagos State Ministry of Transportation last year, Hirsh Moshe, a transport expert suggested the state embark on palliative measures to ease the problem of traffic congestion while it puts aside capital to embark on long term, permanent actions. “If we go with the simple scenario, it will cost around N166 billion. A full rail solution with 16 rail lines will cost up to $5.2 billion,” said Moshe, ROM Transportation Engineering’s general manager.

But while the perennial congestion may be worth hundreds of billions of Naira, it almost cost Maureen Ihuoma her life last week. “I had left the house on my way to Ijanikin on Friday when my sister called and told me to go back home and come Saturday morning. She had left the house since 12 o’clock and by 4pm, she was still at Ojo Barracks,” said Ihuoma who resides in Amukoko and had planned to attend a traditional marriage ceremony.

In the early hours of Saturday, unmasked armed robbers struck at their building and, at gun point, dispossessed all the occupants of their valuables. “If I had left the house on Friday as planned, I would not have been a victim. One of the boys (the robbers) threatened to shoot us if we did not hand over all our money,” she said.

The poor conditions of the roads are as much a contributory factor to the traffic congestions and chaos in Lagos as the presence of law enforcement officers on the highways.

 

The Electronic Inspector

Earlier this year, in August, Babatunde Fashola, the Lagos State Governor launched an electronic device, Auto Inspector, designed to help reduce traffic gridlocks occasioned by police stop and check of vehicle documents on Lagos highways. The electronic device will identify vehicles that do not possess valid documents without engaging in a manual stop and check of their papers.

“Traffic congestion experience on Lagos roads is some of the time compounded when traffic control and law enforcement officers stop motorists to check their vehicle particulars and determine their documentation status which hitherto was done manually,” said Fashola, during the launch at the State Secretariat in Lagos.

A law enforcement officer simply needs to punch a vehicle’s registration number into a hand held Auto Inspector and, instantly, the vehicle and the vehicle owner’s documentation status are determined.

According to the Governor, the electronic device will be issued to and used by the officers of the Nigeria Police, LASTMA, VIOs, and the FRSC to screen vehicles that are registered in Lagos State and have their updated documentation data, including vehicle license, drivers’ license, hackney permit and road worthiness/MOT captured on the AUTOREG platform.

Keeping the Lagos traffic moving would bring a huge relief to Adeshina and other drivers who regularly flout traffic rules in their haste to meet daily “targets” or get to destinations.

“Traffic dey dey tight well well these days,” says Adeshina. “That is why we dey always apply (ply) one way when traffic don start like that, from Mile 2 here to Cele. And if you follow the one way, it will still block. I am tired of all the traffic.”

Source: Daily Times