WHY THERE ARE SO MANY HOLD-UPS IN LAGOS
SIR: We have so many traffic hold-ups in Lagos because the road network is not efficient. There are some roads which need to be opened up to ensure efficient flow of traffics. In some cases, these roads only need to be regraded and tarred to attract motorists to ply them, while in some cases, we need to demolish a house or few houses to relieve traffic in the area. Example is the road at Abule-Egba linking Social Club Road to Alagbado. Constructing this road will relieve the pressure on Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.
We have so many potholes on our roads in Lagos which cause bottlenecks and traffic jams. Potholes are causing collision of vehicles and hold-ups because there are no laws to penalise road-users causing hold-ups because of collision with other users. Offenders ought to be penalised based on the man-hour of all the people they delay. Immediate clearance of vehicles involved in an accident should be done to create free flow of traffic.
In a place like Abule-Egba junction that goes to Oko-Oba, it is high time we constructed an over-head bridge to separate traffic in the area. Vehicular and human traffics should be separated with pedestrian bridge or zebra crossing where human traffic crosses vehicular traffic. The bride at Iyana-Ipaja is too small for the volume of traffic there. Another bridge of the same size should be constructed.
A fourth mainland bridge linking Lekki Phase 1 to Ibeshe, Ikorodu should be constructed as a matter of urgency. This bridge will serve the dual purposes of relieving the heavy traffic on Ozumba Mbadiwe Street in Victoria Island to Alfred Rewane Road in Ikoyi and will also serve as escape route to those working on Lagos Island and living in Ikorodu.
Lekki-Ajah road requires supplement road along the water-front in conformity with the master plan of this area. In a modern city, plying a road of five kilometre should not be more than 30 minutes at peak-period.
The density of residents of Lagos cities is too high. While there is free flow of traffics in places like Badagry, Badore and Epe, there are serious hold-ups in the mainland, Island, Lagos-Ota and Lagos-Ibadan axis. The use of parks and gardens in some places where we have houses and offices will reduce, considerably, the incidence of the use of vehicles in these areas. We need to expand our rail-lines. Train is the most economically, efficient and effective means of transportation if well utilised. It will also reduce the use of road transport and emission.
We have abundant water in Nigeria but the use of water transport is not popular. Water transport is another cheaper way of transport apart from train that ferry passengers en-masse effectively in a metropolis like Lagos. It is the cheapest form of transport and second in safety to train. If a city like Aberdeen with about 250,000 people can record about 100,000 passengers annually on its water, a city like Lagos with over nine million people should aim to transport to less than three million passengers annually.
After carrying out the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of a land use, the government needs to ensure that the land-user compensates the people of the area due to the negative impact of the land-users activities on the area. For example, the establishment of some schools, industries and religious houses has direct negative impact on the flow of traffic in their areas. The land-users should pay for the expansion of roads to normalise traffic.
Neighbourhood car-parks are lacking in numerous areas in Lagos. This led to parking of vehicle including unserviceable ones on the main roads. This is causing serious go-slow, accidents and hold-ups. Some Lagosians are in the habit of selling on the main roads thereby reducing the available area for traffic. Okada riders lack driving education and cause a lot of accident that lead to traffic jam. Rain, when allowed to collect in road troughs and potholes, causes go-slows as motorists are afraid of running into deep wells and problems. All these are what cause hold-ups in Lagos.