The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State, Hon Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has disclosed how his government can solve the traffic problems in Lagos within the shortest period in government with creative inventions.
He said this in a recent media chat in Lagos, where he disclosed some of his plans to govern Lagos State.
Sanwo-Olu, who said though he was not an engineer, but was formerly in an engineering faculty, contended that it goes beyond having a Masters degree in civil engineering to tackle traffic situation and road construction in Lagos State, but with creative abilities, many things can be put to shape almost immediately.
For instance, he came up with a situation citing an instance of if there was a four-lane road that had a terrible traffic situation, and another four-lane beside it that was free, he said it was just a normal thinking that one can create a temporary two lanes from the free one making the busy one six lanes to ease the traffic situation.
“If there is a road you are travelling on and it has a four-lane here where there is traffic, it is blocked, and you have another four-lane opposite, that is empty and moving, why can’t we think through a solution that in the morning or whenever the traffic builds up, lets create additional two lanes from these four lanes that is empty.
“All we need to do is to look at how we solve issues around enforcement and management of it, that is, where is the entry point and where is the exit point of the road. So, the solution is, when the road is blocked, extend this one to be six lanes and the other free one two lanes to ease the traffic.
“You can solve all these problems without even building some of those things that can take you one or two years to build,” Sanwo Olu said.
Sanwo-Olu said as a surveyor, he understood the import of taking proper measurement and managing space, hence, plus the of creative thinking, so many problems associated with tyraffic in Lagos can be solved.
He said in his bid to look for a lasting solution to problems associated with Lagos State, he had consulted with experts who have identified major areas peculiar with traffic gridlocks in the mega city and plans had already been put in place to design quick fixes in these areas.
“It is not that this will solve all the traffic problems but we can design quick fixes, which is similar to the model that we use in some of the toll plazas.
It is going to take a lot of patience and enforcement because you know people also don’t obey things, we don’t have enough road signs and signage, all of those ones will come, but we can design things quickly.
“We have identified major gridlock areas and what kind of interventions we are going to have. These are some of our quick ways, high on impact in our views and we are going to push it in the first six months. It is going to take patience and a lot of enforcement. We are also going to look at how to have a good mass transit system but it is not going to happen overnight,” Sanwo-Olu said.0
