Sanwo-Olu: How I intend to tackle Lagos traffic gridlock within six months

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos state, has disclosed the plans he has to address traffic problem if elected in 2019.

Being the most populous state in the country, traffic jam is one of the major problems in the state.

In a chat with online editors, the governorship candidate said he intends to reduce gridlock  in most parts of the city within six months.

Sanwo-Olu said he had consulted some experts who have identified major traffic spots in the city and plans were in place to design quick wins.

“We have traffic problem all over the world. We have traffic in New York, we have traffic in the city of London, so you also have in the city of Lagos,” he said.

“Part of the ways through which we’ll solve this problem is to identify areas where there are gridlocks and areas we can do what we call quick fixes. We’ll bring about innovations through creative thinking.

“There are areas where we have four lanes blocked but you have the other four lanes empty. Why can’t we think of a solution whereby, in the morning or whenever it is that this is blocked, let’s create two additional lanes from these four lanes that are empty?

“All we need to do is look at – how do we solve the issues around enforcement and management of it: where are the entry and exit points? Make this one six lanes in the morning when you are going, the other one two lanes and in the evening you do a reverse.

“You can solve some of these things without needing to build all of the things that are going to take you one or two years to build. It is the model that we use in some of the toll plazas. It’s going to take a lot of patience and enforcement.

“Not that it will solve all the traffic problems but we can design quick wins… Tomorrow I’ll be in a meeting with some gentlemen who have identified all the major gridlocks in Lagos. We are going to discuss the kinds of intervention that we’ll have and also consider quick wins high on impacts in our view and we’ll push it within our first six months.”