By Funke Cole

One thing synonymous with Lagos is that it is a city bustling with activities across all frontiers with human and vehicular traffic a constant variable and feature.

For a first time visitor to the Central Business District, for instance, he or she most certainly would be awestruck by the sheer volume of vehicular traffic along that route and, if you add that of the Third Mainland Bridge down to Yaba, Maryland, Ikeja, and stretch all the way to the Lagos\Oshodi expressway, the image that would be etched in the visitor’s memory can only be better imagined than explained.

With an estimated 2.5 million vehicles plying Lagos roads on a daily basis, it is instructive to note why the Lagos State government places a lot of premium on the care and maintenance of these roads as part of its duty of care and support for the safety of the users.

Little wonder the state government has renewed efforts to ensure that vehicles that must ply the roads must be in perfect conditions. This move is to prevent avoidable accidents on the roads and ensure sanity ultimately.

One of the agencies saddled with the responsibility of road safety is the Lagos State Vehicle Inspection Service (VIS). In line with its renewed vigour in the clampdown on rickety buses, the Director of the Lagos VIS, Engr. Akin-George Fashola recently announced that it has begun an exercise to take off all rickety vehicles impounded across the state to prevent future use on the roads. According to him, the recent seizure of several dilapidated vehicles across the state by VIS operatives was a testament to the new charge of the agency.

Fashola, who personally apprehended one of the vehicles, described the condition of the seized vehicles as alarming — poorly maintained, fitted with expired parts, and lacking essential safety components. This is just as he warned that such vehicles are “ticking time bombs” on the roads, responsible for countless accidents involving fatalities, injuries, and damage to property.

The VIS boss highlighted common issues found in the impounded vehicles, including expired tires, makeshift brake systems, and rusted, disjointed body frames, rendering them unfit for commercial use. He noted that many of these vehicles tend to operate at night, increasing the risk to unsuspecting commuters.

He urged members of the public to prioritise their safety by avoiding visibly unsafe vehicles and to remain vigilant. He also encouraged Lagosians to report any sighting of such vehicles through the VIS complaint platforms at info@dvis.lg.gov.ng or via the Ministry of Transportation hotlines: 09020004000 and 09020009000. Reiterating the agency’s commitment, Fashola assured that the VIS is working in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, including road transport unions, to ensure Lagos roads are safer for all users.

Primed as a mega city, Lagos is ever innovative and future-forward in its plans and projections especially considering its ambitious dream of developing a fast-paced 21st century economy, road networks are expected to be devoid of little or no congestions of sorts.

While drawing a nexus between city centre development and traffic congestion, a former Permanent Secretary in the state Ministry of Transport, Mr.Taiwo Salaam said that, if the traffic congestion in the densely populated Nigeria’s commercial capital city of Lagos should continue unaddressed till 2030, the city is estimated to lose as much as $21 billion every month.

Delivering the third distinguished lecture series of Lagos State University recently, Salaam, now a Senior Lecturer and Head of the institution’s Department of Transport Technology and Infrastructure, admitted that traffic congestion is the most prevalent and intractable of the challenges facing urban transportation in developing countries especially Lagos, but that the population and size of the state are the major contributors to the challenge. He said that the growing congestion in the state threatens economic viability and aggravates pollution and energy consumption.

Quoting statistics of the socio-economic consequences of traffic congestion across various cities globally, the guest lecturer said the rate at which the population of Lagos is growing has further complicated the city’s traffic problem. He said that Lagos is currently growing at between seven and eight per cent yearly, adding that the population growth percentage rate is 10 times faster than those of New York and Los Angeles cities in the United States of America.

Salaam, whose presentation was on the theme, “The Evolution of Transport, Congestion and Traffic Management in Metropolitan Lagos”, further said that Lagos currently accommodates 40% of the total registered vehicles in Nigeria, explaining that that is why the city is confronted with the challenges of developing a transportation system that serves its citizenry in terms of safety, accessibility, affordability, reliability, efficiency, and comfortability.

He said: ‘The capacity to do so is affected and influenced by such factors as population, finances, policy environment, constitutional constraints and citizens’ attitudes, among others. “The economic growth of Lagos among the cities in Nigeria has placed it in a vantage position for prosperity. However, its greatest challenge remains the movement of goods and services against the backdrop of its rapid population and phenomenal growth rate.

‘The city had an average of 224 vehicles per km in 2006 as against the national average of 11 vehicles per km. The Nigeria national average in 2009 was estimated at 30 vehicles per km, Lagos had moved to 300. In addition, the city has over 1.4 million registered vehicles, and approximately 2.5 million vehicles are on the road daily, weekend inclusive’.

The lecturer said that transportation pollutes the air more after industrial factories and that the development leads to health issues, and climate change at a higher cost, adding that the World Bank has reported that at least 30,000 people die every year from pollution in Nigeria.

‘According to the bank, pollution is a huge problem in many cities globally, including Lagos, which is notorious for its large population, high concentration of motor vehicles and industrial pollution, this further shows that an estimation of 20 million people lives in an area of less than 100 square kilometres in Lagos, which leads to a suffocating mix of air pollution, single-use plastic pollution and solid waste in the city’s streets causing respiratory problems, floodings and other illnesses among the locals’, he said.

Proffering solutions to traffic gridlock in the state, Salaam, who has a certificate in transport management and is the chairman of Chartered Institute of Transport Administration of Nigeria, suggested Automated Guideway Transit (AGT), a type of railway and suspended cars/buses in rope (cable cars) as the lasting solution.

He said: ‘AGT is a modern train with the flexibility to penetrate the nooks and crannies of communities such as markets, residences, offices, seaports, airports, railway stations, hospitals, recreation centres and many more.

‘It has the capacity of door-to-door services and can easily serve all the corridors of designed light rails by feeding and taking away passengers to their doorsteps’.

It is instructive to note that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s T.H.E.M.E+ agenda has at its core road safety, transport and infrastructural growth, which are clearly ideals and ideas that can define and redefine a city centre like Lagos, hence nothing must be left to chance in those areas.