What is the longest time you have spent in traffic? Imagine spending the whole day commuting. It is much expected that after the break down of law and order in the state following the aftermath of the Lekki shooting, every citizen would feel the adverse effect. The burning of BRT buses was uncalled for. Now, it is back to the struggle of boarding public transport without comfort or affordability, or even availability.
If I had known that every Lagosian would be coming out that day, I would have stayed back at home and postpone my meeting. As I counted the number of vehicles fighting for space on the road, I almost ran out of breath. This became a topic of discussion amongst the passengers in the vehicle I boarded. “Must everyone use their vehicles?“
Taking a Transportation Management course at the university, we were taught that ‘carpooling’ is an effective way to control traffic. If an individual would join somebody else going towards his destination instead of all his family members driving different cars, that would reduce the number of vehicles on the road. The lesser the number of vehicles, the lower the traffic building up. Another option was cycling. In advanced countries, people bike and they have their lanes. Also, other transport means could have been tapped into like the train and ferry boat. Then, people have options and put less strain on a particular mode of transportation.
The people who benefitted largely from the heavy traffic were the vendors. It must have been a field day for these set of people. Many of us sat in traffic, complaining, and cursing. When we got tired, we patronised the vendors to at least have something to eat and drink while we anxiously praying to get back to our destination in time.
Given that the State government had imposed a curfew, it didn’t work from what I observed. As of 8: 30p.m, people were still on the road held up in traffic. All last-minute frantic efforts to beat the curfew proved abortive. This is just one of the many cases. On a normal day, traffic and the state are the ‘power couple’. It takes a lot of grit and stamina to get through in a city like this.
For someone who lives on the mainland but has to go every day on Island, one can imagine the challenge. Having experienced that situation, it does not drain mentally but physically too. How do you explain someone waking up 4:00 a.m daily to leave for work from 5:30 a.m to 10:30 p.m daily? Now, you know why people shout ‘Thank God for its Friday’. However, the weekend that would have been used for ‘flexing’ is spent sleeping and recuperating.
After all said and done, a splash of cold water on the head, a nicely arranged bed, a chilled bottle of Pepsi preferably, and ones’ favorite meal with uninterrupted power supply waiting for you, is something to crave for after such a long day.