Following the ban on the use of commercial motorcycles and tricycles on designated roads and major highways within the Lagos metropolis and Africa’s most populous city, there are serious on the state government’s readiness in completing the Blue and Red line Lagos rail mass transit system project by 2022 which was started in 2009.
The Lagos state government had on February 1, 2020 announced the banning of commercial motorcycle popularly called Okada and tricycles referred to as Keke from major highways and strategic roads in 15 local governments and council development areas to curtail the menace and the increasing number of fatal accidents on the roads resulting from the use of these two modes of transporation in the state.
As workers prepare to go to their various places of work and businesses on Monday, many resorted to trekking and by various alternative means of transported, including taking horse rides with lamentation that the authorities did not provide an alternative before going ahead to ban the Okada described to be the cheapest means of transportation for most people in the state.
The ban triggered a protest in some parts of the state including Allen roundabout, Ikeja area the same Monday. This is coming a few hours after some of the riders protested at Ijora area of the state as angry motorcycle (Okada) riders made bonfires around Ijora-Olopa in protest of the ban slammed on their operations in some parts of the state.
Despite the latest government move, BusinessDay findings during the day show that commercial motorcycle operators are still operating along the Badagry/Mile 2 expressway in defiance of the new government law.
The Lagos-Badagry highway records one of the highest numbers of commercial motorcycle road crashes in the state with its antedant high fality rates in recent years.
Meanwhile, the state government said the ban was necessary because official records of the state, excluding the unofficial records showed over 10,000 people had died since 2016 following accidents caused by Keke and Okada.
Key to the ongoing efforts at rejuvenating the Lagos state transport masterplan do the first two lines in the series of urban rail projects comprise the Red and Blue lines projects estimated to cost $1.4bn. While the Red line measures 30 km long, and will run between Marina and Agbado, the Blue line will be 27 km long, connecting Okokomaiko to Marina.
During the August 2019 Nigerian Bar Association general conference in Lagos, the commissioner for Transportation, Frederic Oladeinde said that over 1.6 million vehicles ply Lagos roads daily while 226 cars run on Lagos roads per kilometer compared to the National average of 16 cars per kilometer.
An estimated 75,000 commercial buses in Lagos currently cater for about 10,000 public-passenger trips per day while an average of 12,000 public transport trips are generated daily and about 50 percent of the statistics all along the Red and Blue rail corridors.
No doubt, the innovations presented by the Law of 2018 are laudable and has the potential of revamping the transport sector in Lagos State. According to a transport expert, it is one thing to have a law in place; it is another thing to ensure proper implementation.
The former without the latter makes the law a toothless bulldog. It is very important that the LASG defines a structure for implementation of the Law in order to actualize the vision to reform the state transport sector.
Lagosians wait the unfolding of a new dawn in its transportation system and the reality of a safe, fast, efficient and effective means of transportation for all including a functional rail system.
According to the state’s intermodal transportation plans, the Blue line starts at Marina station and runs along Ebute Ero and Iddo station same as the Red line.
From Iddo, the Blue line running on an elevated platform moves along the National Theatre station and makes a descent at Iganmu to join the expanded Lagos-Badagry Expressway.
The expansion is conceived to ease link between Nigeria and neighbouring West African states, Alaba, Mile 2, Festac, Alakija, Trade Fair station, Volkswagen station, LASU and finally reaches the Okokomaiko station where it ends.
