LAGOS TRAFFIC JAM: A Scenario with many sides (My views, take, and analysis)

 

The State called Lagos (Introduction) 

Lagos State is no doubt what I call the most activity inclined State in Nigeria. From sports to entertainment, trading, corporate business to mention a few and to other of business and leisure activities that defines an individual, ones career, personality and a geographical location. All these account for why Lagos is the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria.

With the commercial nerve centre/hub status on Lagos State that sheds more light on the definition of Lagos, the State has over the years had a high influx of people and in no time, may just experience a population explosion, as the number of immigrants, both locally and internationally have over the years increased at a geometric level. From rural - urban migration, to immigration and whatever yardstick that defines the movement of people from one geographical location to another, the State is overwhelmingly growing economically and population wise. The latter increase, though advantageously as it guarantees the availability of human resources to take the very few jobs available, its disadvantage brings to birth the caption of this work.

According to lagosstate.gov.ng as sourced on 19 Jan., 2013, the estimated population of the state is 17,552,942, which it states is due to the population growth rate in the state that is about 600,000 per annum. 

In my opinion, these staggering figures have many reasons among which is the perception of Lagos State “being” London by some indigenes of others states and towns, thereby making the state to serve as a point of “greener pasture”. With the underlining statement, the geometrically progressive population growth rate of the state is among the many reasons for the traffic gridlock in Lagos being the way it is.

The traffic jam in Lagos is one of a kind, one not good enough for anyone to have a feel of nor experience, especially if one isn’t just used to traffic jam but a gridlock iced with drama, a drama of a kind by the impatient motorists who try to outsmart one another as they believe patience has no place to stay in the state for as long as traffic jam is concerned or the traffic law enforcement agency, notably the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) which has many of its personnel employing what I call a drably mediocrity inclined approach to easing up the traffic headache in the state. With these dramas freely watched each time with new casts in different episodes, one is most times left with no choice but to wish one could teleport oneself out of the state, but unfortunately since one isn’t Mortal Kombat’s Reptile, that will be impossible as one will be stuck in the impromptu drama experience, befitting a good bed time story for your kid(s).

The traffic in Lagos in my opinion has many sides, which obviously are widely perceived to be on the disadvantage but, I just figured out the advantage side of the traffic.

I am not going o let the cat out of the bag but keep you reading this in suspense as I drive you through the many sides of Lagos Traffic Jam.

On the traffic jam (suspense) with regards to the aforesaid, just have a ride reading this as you will get there in no time.

The Many Sides of Lagos State Traffic

Inefficiency/production decline rate: The traffic in Lagos has overtime had a horrifying effect on productivity. This is attributed to the lateness of people to work and in a bid to adequately cover – up for the earlier lost time when one is left with no choice but to spend extra time with no overtime compensation. Not everyone stays beyond the walking hours but irrespective of what the case is, productivity is adversely affected me. 

Tiredness: This is somewhat in line with the aforementioned point but it goes down to stress the fact that every individual need rest and though the traffic could ironically serve as a good time for one to catch some good sleep, staying in traffic for so long, perhaps 4 – 5 hours for a 30mins journey is a strongpoint to one sleeping uncomfortably, having body and most especially, neck aches. I have been a victim of this many times. This tiredness, I believe, goes a long way in explaining why people at times feel so tired at work or in the evening when they get home, this I am very guilty of.

Vehicular damage/breakdown: No questioning, the high population rate in Lagos is predominantly responsible for the huge traffic jam experienced, however, other factors like road accidents and vehicular breakdown is also responsible.

But, for the purpose of this work, suffice us to pay attention to the “population cause” which further has a resulting effect on the high numbers of cars on the road. Times without numbers, Lagos traffic adversely gets a handful of cars breakdown and adding being the bottleneck to what ought to have eased the jam. With such an occurrence, one would have expected the towing service to be on their toes to swiftly respond to such situation but their response is at times slow, discouraging and very annoying.

Slow down to rescue effort/emergency response: This is a very critical argument to the traffic and will be more stressed than the others as it no doubt accounts for why Lagos state loses its best brains, its future and a slowdown in the emergency response effort of the available emergency response units like the Fire Service, Police and Ambulance Service. The slow down effect of the traffic jam cannot be undermined and it underscores the reason why it is high time the government of Lagos State employ an alternative to embarking on the aforementioned emergency response activities. I posit that the way in view is an aerial approach, with the aid of helicopters.

The state and other states, not exempting the Federal government may dodge this approach by claiming it will take a huge financial commitment but; “hello, if the government is sincerely and prudent with its expenses, and corruption being widely frowned at and encouragingly getting the nation taking a new leaf, embarking on this approach will be a piece of cake as Lagos State and Nigeria as a whole can afford it.

A typical Lagos traffic jam situation

Crime: This is a 2 faceted point on the traffic and no doubt the bedrock to this work coming to life. The 2 sidedness of this point is on the merit and demerit but, we will start with the negative perspective.

On the negative, the traffic situation in Lagos has overtime, been “advantageous” to criminals who swiftly employ it as a means of robbing motorists stuck in the traffic. With this pitiable act being a recurring incident, the need to have an aerial crime fighting approach is expedient, as it will always give these “men of the night” a food for thought, as they will have it at the back of their minds that the possibility of them getting killed or arrested is close to certainty.   

On the flip side, we have the positive crime effect. On this, it is not an advantage to the motorists nor the criminals but the government. Lagos drivers, chauffeurs and many others on the steering are guilty of breaking traffic rules, notably the traffic light and the stop directive from the traffic warden (traffic light controlling cop) just because the latter is not armed with the necessary equipments to bring these traffic offenders to book. 

This ignorance and perhaps, blind eye to the traffic light, added to the disrespect of the traffic warden which arises due to him seen as a statue by the traffic light offenders is speedily having a huge drop in the state. One may ask, is the drop attributed to the fact that Lagos drivers are now obedient to traffic laws? The answer, No!

What has skyrocketed the traffic obedience is the fact that the growing traffic level across the state, has produced a no hiding place for traffic offenders as most times, the perpetuators of the act in no time get caught up by the law enforcement agencies, due to them sooner or later being held up in traffic jam while trying to avoid arrest.  

With this, as bad as the traffic jam in Lagos is, the single advantage it has is to the law enforcement agencies that have their trail on traffic offenders smoothly executed.

These views of mine shared, it is so interestingly amazing to note that Lagos State is not listed in the ranking of world cities with regards to traffic jam. 

Being a resident of Lagos and having a countless stuck in traffic for long hours, I had always felt that no mega city can be like Lagos. This indeed is a wrong notion as 2 major sources, allworldcars.com and bbc.co.uk shut my thoughts up.

Allworldcars.com had a top 20 ranking of traffic jam cities. In this publication, tagged “the world’s 20 cities with the worst traffic jams”, Lagos was noticeably absent but rather, Tokyo was in the driving seat with Los Angeles, Sao Paulo, Bangkok, Moscow, Shanghai being in second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth. Others are Mumbai, Mexico, New York, Seoul, Chicago, Manila and London in seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth. Eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth place. In fourteenth, fifteenth, down to twentieth had Jakarta, Osaka, Venezuela, Athens, Auckland, Rio de Janeiro and Kathmandu.

On the other hand, the survey by bbc.co.uk which it dubbed; 10 monster traffic jams from around the world had Bangkok, Thailand; Jakarta, Indonesia; Nairobi, Kenya; Manila, Philippines and Mumbai, India in the order of first to fifth place. Concluding the list in sixth to tenth place had Kampala, Uganda; Lexington, Kentucky, US; Austin, Texas, US; Seoul, South Korea; Dhaka, Bangladesh and Megeve, French Alps.

As observed, both analyses had variations in placement which could be attributed to the yardstick, point and approach employed by these individuals in the course of their analysis. That of the bbc was released on 30 September, 2012 while allworldcars, on December 10, 2008. Definitely a huge timeframe between both analysis and notably, the traffic jam in Lagos has been on the rise long before 2008 but interestingly not deemed good enough for a top 10 placement.

But irrespective of these variation, significantly, it is observed that Lagos State is not on either list and when given the opportunity to drop by in any of these traffic jam concerned cities, I will have my own analysis to compare and find out what make Bangkok, Jakarta, Dhaka among others way ahead of the city of Lagos.

In conclusion, from the one and only football analyst diva, Anita Agbakoba, “our (Lagos) traffic jam here is even heaven to those places”.

To check out Anita Agbakogba’s why she is the one and only football analyst diva, please follow the subsequent link;

THE CONTENDERS RATING SCALE: HOW EFFECTIVE IS IT?

 

Sources:

“10 monster traffic jams from around the world” bbc 30 Sep., 2012. 19 Jan., 2013 < http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19716687>

 

“The world’s 20 cities with the worst traffic jams” allworldcars 10 Dec., 2008. 19 Jan., 2012 < http://allworldcars.com/wordpress/?p=11866>

Population” Lagos State Government  19 Jan., 2013. < http://www.lagosstate.gov.ng/pagelinks.php?p=6>