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Unlocking The Gridlock: Keep Lagos Moving With Pride. - Politics - Nairaland

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Unlocking The Gridlock: Keep Lagos Moving With Pride. by farayiola(f): 2:02pm On Jun 25, 2010
Unlocking the Gridlock: Keep Lagos Moving with Pride.

Traffic congestion is a phenomenon common to major cities of the world. Driving through Lagos roads especially during peak periods is time-consuming. Contributing to this fact is the low regard for traffic rules and regulation. Indeed, analysts are in agreement that the man-hour lost daily on the roads in major cities in the country is unquantifiable. Successive governments had adopted various strategies to address this major challenge.

As a way of finding lasting solution to the challenges motorists experience on Lagos roads daily, LASTMA held its first ever Traffic Management conference in the state on the 2nd of March 2010 with the theme " Unlocking the Gridlock: Keep Lagos Moving with Pride”, held at the Expo Centre, Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The event commenced with the plenary session by school children of the School Traffic Safety Advocacy Programme (STSAP) of LASTMA, asking questions on transport-related issues from a team of panelists led by Governor of Lagos State Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN); Lagos State Commissioners for Transport Prof. Bamidele Badejo; Special Adviser to the Governor on Transport, Mr. Kayode Opeifa; his Works and Infrastructure counterpart, Mr. Ganiyu Johnson and Chief Executive Officer, LASTMA, Mr. Young Arebamen.

Others included founder of FATE foundation and member Presidential Advisory Committee, Mr. Fola Adeola; Managing Director, Lekki Concession Company (LCC), Mr. Opuiyo Oforiokuma; former Israeli Minister of Transportation Dr Hirsh Moshe; Managing Director, Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) Dr Dayo Mobereola; and the Water Authority (LASWA) and LAGBUS Asset Management Company’s, Mr. Jide Cole.

Speaking at the conference, the Governor suggested that the quest for man's survival coupled with a population of 18 million people in the state, traffic congestion was inevitable. He however assured that his government is working round the clock to institute measures to minimize congestion on its roads.

"We do not see gridlock as an excuse for inefficiency or lateness; we see it as one of the challenges of our time that requires us as City and State managers to bring to bear our skills and tax payers' money to implement mitigating strategies. This is exactly what we are doing; building new roads, widening existing ones, building bridges and flyovers, opening up the waterways for ferry services designing and implementing a light rail service to provide an integrated and multi-modal transport system using our State’s natural and human financial resources, he said.

Fashola however described the regular traffic gridlock usually witnessed on a daily basis across the Lagos metropolis as indicative of a prosperous economy but must be well managed so as not to inhibit growth.
The Governor who that the attraction of Lagos as a former Federal Capital and a major hub for commerce in Nigeria and the West African sub-region brought with it the challenges of rapid urbanization, growing population and traffic congestion, adding that traffic congestion was not peculiar to Lagos but a trend other cities in the world are presently contending with.

"We understand that with the problem of global migration, Lagos, like many other major cities will have to tackle the problem of congestion", Fashola said, submitting that "because there are people, there will be pressure on existing transport infrastructure, creating gridlock.
Fashola also remarked that efforts by previous administrations in the state to tackle traffic congestion did not yield much due to lack of continuity of government especially during the military era.
"One common element for all those policies of our previous administrations that we have seen is because at that time the tenure of administration was so short. For instance, if Alhaji Lateef Jakande had served for a second term, certainly we would not have been lamenting the lack of railway in Lagos state.

"Over the years, successive administrations have come up with policies and programmes aimed at addressing the various traffic challenges but lack of continuity, centralization of power and control at the federal level especially during the military era had compounded the problem. Policies have been usually short-lived in a way that prevented them from being properly evaluated, modified and reformed to meet new challenges", he said.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Transport, Comrade Kayode Opeifa disclosed earlier that the state intended to use the conference to share expertise and experiences cutting across various cities with the intention to keeping the state moving.
"When Lagos traffic moves, the economy, social, political and even the citizens will move, return on investments would soar, prosperity will be sustained and sustainable development assured".

He added, 'our objectives are to share expertise, best practices and experience in the areas of traffic management, control and enforcement, transportation planning, road safety and incident management and communication, thereby improving service delivery in these disciplines. It also provides a platform to identify and discuss critical success factors and proffer solutions in order to enhance the image and professionalism of traffic management operations, control and coordination in an emerging mega city.
Re: Unlocking The Gridlock: Keep Lagos Moving With Pride. by DisGuy: 2:22pm On Jun 25, 2010
Fashola didnt talk about the dare-devil tactics employed these lastma agberos??

funny how everyone invited/present was on the side of the government and not the road users

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