As the year 2017 was coming to a close and the city of Lagos was getting in the mood for Christmas shopping, a pretty much disturbing report popped up in the international media. The report rated most cities in the world in accordance with the level of traffic in them. Of course Lagos made the list, but on the wrong side of it.
According to the study by German auto parts retailer kfzteile24, Lagos was rated the third worst city in the world to drive in. According to the results of the study, the city of Düsseldorf in Germany was ranked as the best city for driving. The study said Lagos roads are congested 60% of the time, and the average speed of drivers is 10.70 mph.
This has continued despite the best efforts of the previous administration. That is exactly why Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Governorship aspirant of the All Progressive Congress has said that traffic management will become a priority for his administration.
Sanwo-Olu has declared that he is going to adopt a more innovative and high tech approach to solving the stubborn challenge of traffic congestion in Lagos, as it’s obtainable in most mega cities in the world.
Unfortunately, despite being one of the biggest economies in Africa with a population of more than 20million people, Lagos still lags behind with regards technology driven traffic management system. Much of its traffic management interventions are still pretty much manual and that is why Lagos has become a haven for traffic congestion, costing the average Lagosian no less than four hours of valuable man hour daily. This obviously has grave implications on the economy both at the family and national level.
That is why Sanwo-Olu has decided to be bullish about the traffic problem. Speaking recently, Sanwo-Olu explained his traffic management formula will be more modern and data driven. He noted that some of the transport project of the previous and present administration of Lagos will be accelerated and completed in a timely manner.
“We are currently mining the necessary data and studying the various traffic gridlock points in Lagos. Over 60 points have been identified. We will unfold a comprehensive Traffic Management Plan (TMP) that will greatly reduce travel time.
“Part of the ways through which we’ll solve this problem is to identify areas where there are gridlocks and areas we can do what we call quick fixes. We’ll bring about innovations through creative thinking.
“There are areas where we have four lanes blocked but you have the other four lanes empty. Why can’t we think of a solution whereby, in the morning or whenever it is that this is blocked, let’s create two additional lanes from these four lanes that are empty?
“All we need to do is look at – how do we solve the issues around enforcement and management of it: where are the entry and exit points? Make this one six lanes in the morning when you are going, the other one two lanes and in the evening you do a reverse.
“You can solve some of these things without needing to build all of the things that are going to take you one or two years to build. It is the model that we use in some of the toll plazas. It’s going to take a lot of patience and enforcement.
“Not that it will solve all the traffic problems but we can design quick wins,” Sanwo-Olu said, adding that all of these strategies will be aggressively implemented in the six months of his administration with proven results.
As an experienced banker and commissioner for budget and planning, Sanwo-Olu obviously understands that the traffic narrative traffic in Lagos is obviously beyond how long people spend on the roads, it’s about the economy of the state and the Federal Government and the wellbeing of the individual Lagosians. It’s about the fact that Lagos loses around N42billion to traffic congestion yearly.
Speaking further, Sanwo-Olu said, “Our focus is beyond just road travels within the state. We are thinking about an integrated transportation system befitting of a megacity state like Lagos. One third of Lagos is water and that suggests that we have a huge water transportation opportunity and alternative. The waterways need to be properly mapped out to help navigation,” he said.
“We also have the rail project that we need to complete, especially the Blueline from Okokomaiko to CMS. We need to complete the track. It is about funding and we will find a way of completing that rail project. Lagos needs a transportation system outside the road; a transportation system that can move thousands of people daily.”
The governorship candidate encouraged Lagosians to change their orientation about the way they use the road. He lamented some behaviours that aides the traffic congestion, which citizens should drop in the interest of everybody.
Akintola Badmus is a political analyst and social commentator based in Festac, Lagos.
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