Soon, private vehicles would be restricted from plying major roads in Calabar metropolis as a way of checking the huge vehicular traffic in the state capital, the Special Adviser to Governor Liyel Imoke on Public Transportation, Barrister Edem Ekong, has said.
Addressing newsmen, Ekong said the governor has given approval for his agency to recruit 100 school certificate holders and graduates to be trained as traffic officers to check vehicular congestion. He also revealed that, owing to their vast experience in traffic management, the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) has been contracted to train the youths in all aspects of traffic control.

“The idea to restrict private cars on the roads on certain days is to reduce the number of vehicles now on our major roads. Government will soon increase the number of metro-buses and taxes, to charge moderate rates, so that car owners can use them instead of burning their fuel”. He said his agency has commenced discussion with owners of designated parks, with a view to creating more car parks. This, he said, would stop people from parking along the roads and other unauthorized places.

What a great laugh!, is this man serious, am sure the Special Adviser on transportation to Cross River Govt is a School leaver and definitely does not have any experience in traffic management. How can such be considered, infringing on the rights of people from using their personal cars, for some people using their cars is a source of comfort than using public transportation, so it's definitely not right to deny people of their right, all in the name of de-congesting traffic.

What he should be proposing, is proper management of traffic and opening of alternative routes. Is traffic in Cross River has much as Lagos State, the fact is that when development of infrastructure does not grow at the same pace with population explosion, there is bound to be this kind of problem, and banning vehicles is a lazy and ineffective way of solving the problem, because when people start to complain, and another govt comes in and reverses the decision, then you will be back to square one.

At the very least, if people see that it is cheaper and convenient to take public transport, they would gladly leave their vehicles behind, what the Cross River Govt should do first is to encourage private owners to invest in public buses transportation within the state, then also develop alternative road networks that will free up the congested roads, and also look at the long term plan of light rails within the state. All this measures will go a long way in solving the problem permanently, and not by banning the private cars on major roads will solve the problem.

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