•Gridlock around Mile 2 on Lagos-Badagry Expressway
When dawn breaks over Lagos, what should be a routine drive along the Lagos–Badagry Expressway becomes an exercise in patience and uncertainty.
Vehicles inch forward, heavy trucks and commercial buses occupy lanes that ought to flow freely, and the absence of designated lay-by zones or proper pull-aside areas means that stops and loadings happen right in the traffic stream, reports Saturday Guardian.
Coupled with inconsistent enforcement of traffic regulations and ad-hoc lane‐usage, ineffective traffic control has become a key bottleneck.
Some of the bus stops along the Lagos-Badagry corridor with irritating slow traffic especially during peak hours include Orile, Mile 2, Festac First Gate, Abule Ado, Iyana-Iba, Ishashi, Iyana-Era, Agbara.
In each of these bus stops, there is usually long traffic, while between Orile and Okoko, the long traffic is more prominent on the BRT corridor, except Iyana-Iba that there is traffic on both the BRT corridor and the service lane.
In Agbara, Mile 2, Iyana-Iba, Ishashi, Iyana-Era, the long traffic could flow backwards to about 300 metres away from the bus stop during peak periods.
It was observed that in many of the instances, the slow traffic is caused by commercial buses picking or dropping passengers. Some of the commercial drivers rather than even maintain a lane since there are no lay-by or too small for the volume of buses plying the route, they turn the entire two-column lane as points to pick or drop passengers.
Yet in many of these bus stops, there are traffic officers from Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) and Police, who shoddily execute their task.
Commenting, a motorist, Michael Oluwafemi, said that many of the commercial drivers are so unruly and recalcitrant.
“No doubt some of the traffic officers are trying but they sometimes feel overwhelmed because how do you enforce without abandoning the duty post that could even further complicate the issue?
” So there is need to deploy more officers in some spots as there are too many in some locations.
The inadequate officers is why the traffic builds up and the officer moves up and down to correct and make drivers, especially those of commercial buses, to comply with buses not obstructing traffic flow.
“I know also sometimes that the traffic officers are not strict enough or look away because of what you and I know.”
He stated that the state government and the management of LASTMA and Police traffic officers need to do something to reign in commercial drivers who are very recalcitrant.
Also speaking, Sola Adebayo said that many of the points that there is slow traffic on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway are spots with no lay-bys or the lay-bys are sited in points that do not align with the places passengers traditionally board buses.
There is also the case of where the lay-by is too small for the number of vehicles that need to use the lay-by.
