Lagos State government recently unveiled a transport policy to guide activities within the transport sector. The objectives mirror the same targets embedded in the 2005 master plan but without new deliverables. Stakeholders said beyond recycling laudable transport objectives into fanciful policy documents for fanfare roll-out, the government should focus more on strategic critical infrastructure statewide, GBENGA SALAU reports.
With over 20 million residents and being the economic nercentre of Nigeria, commercial activities in Lagos State are humongous. As a result, the transportation sector is very critical to effectively run the state and aid the movement of persons and goods in and out of the city-state.
It was, therefore, not surprising when the state government recently unveiled a transport policy to shape activities within the transport sector.
The new policy objective is to have a transport system that is integrated, safe, adequate, reliable, comfortable, convenient, efficient, affordable, and environmentally friendly.
And to arrive at its objective, the policy covers areas such as road infrastructure; road safety; transport safety and security of users and operators; traffic management; public transport: bus and non-bus based; private transport and car usage; urban road freight; non-motorised transport; rail transport; air transport; inland waterways transport; maritime transport (seaports); pipelines; and environment, climate and infrastructure resilience.
Of note, however, is that this is not the first time the state government would roll-out a transport policy document to provide a direction around activities in the transport sector.
For instance, in 2005, the state government came up with the state Transport Strategic Master Plan (TSMP) with a focus on multi-modal transportation. The plan was to span 20 years and it is expected to elapse next year, 2025.
But the new transport policy was birth two years to the termination of the TSMP. This is because though the transport policy was unveiled in May 2024, it was actually produced in May 2023, if the date on the policy document is considered.
The new policy document shows a rehash of many of the outlines contained in the strategic transport master plan that would terminate next year though there are modifications of old outlines cum milestones contained in the TSMP.
Surprisingly, a year to the finish line of the TSMP, the central objectives of the TSMP are far from being achieved. The TSMP projected to have a city that will by 2025 be driven by multi-modal transport with 60 per cent of the residents commuting through road transport, 20 per cent moving via rail, while the other 20 per cent of the residents would be connecting different parts of the city by water.
No wonder the new transport policy stated that “the present monocentric development pattern is not sustainable as it leads to longer travel distances for economic and social interaction, exacerbating traffic congestion and prolonging journeys, leading to adverse impacts on the environment.”
It provided a solution saying that “Embracing polycentric spatial development will reduce travel distances and cost, create multi-use nodes for economic, social and recreational activities.”
It also believes that the efforts to make the process polycentric should be designed around people rather than vehicles with multi-modal hubs at their core based on Transit Oriented Development principles.
The policy also talked about the creation of transport police as part of its safety drive, but the state already has so many agencies carrying one policing task. They include the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) officers, Vehicle Inspection Service (VIO), Central Business District Officers and Neighbourhood Safety Corps.
Also worthy of mention is that while the policy document agreed that the local councils are very critical in the execution of a seamless transportation system in the state because most commuting experiences start and end within a local council, the policy still expected that another study is commissioned to carry out rural transport and development study to better understand the travel needs of those parts of the state still rural in nature and how best to address them.
Ironically, the policy recognises the reality that most trips begin and end at the local council level and that many of the recommendations contained in the policy document are best undertaken at the local level or, at least require significant inputs from the local council to ensure their success.
Nonetheless, the policy stated that throughout its implementation government shall actively discourage the use of motorcycles as a public transport mode to discontinue their general use, aside from limiting the use of tricycles to providing service within local council areas and in/ around specific locations such as markets.
“In an ideal transport system where formal public transport services on state roads and major local roads are adequate, tricycles would not be used by the travelling public as widely as they presently are.”
The policy also demanded that the government’s efforts should make the use of private vehicles more efficient by simultaneously promoting their reduced usage.
“The increase in car traffic on Lagos roads in recent years, which perpetuates historical pernicious traffic congestion, is largely the result of the inadequacy of public transport services (quality, safety, convenience and availability) which has led many people to purchase private vehicles to meet their travel needs.”
Commenting on the new policy, a transportation specialist at the University of Lagos, Dr Olayinka Agunloye, said that Lagos needs transport policy to make effective and efficient decisions concerning the allocation of transport resources, and the management and regulation of existing transport activities.
On the coming of the policy just two years to the end of the strategic master plan, Agunloye said that there is a difference between the strategic transport master plan and the transport policy.
“Ideally, the policy should come before the plan. However, the difference is that the policy is a proposition and rules that are established to achieve specific objectives of the transport system while the strategic master plan responds to the demand and supply of the transport system through the development of physical development transport plans that guide growth and development of the sector in a phasing order.”
Observing that the provisions in the policy are capable of propelling the Lagos transport sector development significantly, he, nonetheless, said that there is a need for the procurement and conduct of a parking survey in the policy just as there is a need for the integration of level of service estimations request into the development of model city plans or master plans of the state.
On whether the government is serious about the document considering the policy was launched one year after it was already being implemented, Agunloye said: “The irony is that the implementations commenced significantly before the policy. This is not supposed to be. However, the government is serious as we can all see and are committed to delivering the plans.”
Also, a lecturer at Lagos State University, Samuel Odewunmi, a professor of transport, said that to have the policy in place is progress, considering the process started about seven years ago with the first draft completed towards the tail end of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s tenure but it was not launched then.
“If he had proclaimed it, this year would have been for a review because it would have been more than five years required for a review. So, for it to come out all at is a step that deserves some commendation.”
Odewunmi noted that Lagos transport policy is the first with the national transport policy that has been in the works since 1990 yet to be concluded.
On why it is difficult to roll out a transport policy, he said that the first is that transport transverses so many ministries, works, environment, land and because of territorial protection, ministries do not want to cede their authority. “Thus, it needs a lot of political manoeuvring and management to succeed.”
No matter how good a document can be, implementing its outlines is the key, Odewunmi, who agreed that implementation is very important, however, stated that implementation is a joint effort as it is every stakeholder’s job to ensure that the implementation is followed through by engaging and enforcing its content.
“A document is nothing except it gets peoples’ buy-in and the rights it confers on them which they want to claim. This is because it is not just a government policy; it is a multi-stakeholder policy that gives rights to people. And by people demanding those rights, the policy takes a life of its own.
“For instance, issues around financial targets for traffic managers are not in the policy and I challenge the government that has the policy that where is it stated that target should be given. Traffic management is a whole objective, and raising funds is another objective, but if traffic management brings money, so be it as a secondary benefit, but if you make it a target in traffic management, the officers will derail because they will want drivers to flout the law so that they will be able to fine motorists. So they will not want the traffic to flow freely because if the traffic flows freely, nobody will be fine.”
He, nonetheless, said that the implementation may not achieve a 100 per cent target but having documentation that will show the road map is a good one.
On the transport strategic master plan that was available before now and the state government not coming close to meeting its target, Odewunmi observed that most times transport master plan is mistaken as transport policy. He added that transport policy is bigger than the transport master plan because the policy will look at what ordinarily the transport master plan will not consider.
“So transport master plan becomes a part of transport policy. There are so many things that will be a target in the policy that are not part of the master plan. For instance, the issue of land use is very prominent in the policy because the transport master plan drawn by LAMATA may not have the authority to treat the issue.
“Secondly, the two documents draw from the same idea of having a safe, reliable and affordable transport system that serves the people. But when it comes to targets, whether in transport policy or master plan, they are aspirations. This is what we want to do. Take the mix of the modal system, the state could not have met the transport master plan goal because to meet the goals, the state ought to have invested hugely in water transport.
“For example, water is failing, because road is still the dominant mode of transportation. Lagos wants to bring in rail, water and non-motorised transport. If you talk of non-motorised transport, the infrastructure for people to walk safely is not there yet. Most of the places and kerbs where people should walk or ride bicycles are not there. So, they cannot achieve that unless they put money into the infrastructure. Then look at water transport. Lagos has many water routes but many of the access roads to the jetties are not that safe and easy to access.
“Also, you cannot wear your suit and to connect Falomo from Ojo by boat comfortably. The majority of boats are not covered, so the passengers are exposed to wind. And there are few places where park and ride facilities are available. The interchange at Mile 2 where rail, road and water should interconnect is still in progress, not completed.
“So the investment has not marched the aspiration, which is why the state did not meet the master plan target. Though the road is still dominant, with more than 90 per cent of mobility by road, the emphasis in road infrastructure has been on the major expressway but interlink roads must be done because major express roads are traffic collectors. Let us do inner roads as most peoples’ houses are not on the expressway.
“I hope the government will work on making water transport and the jetties more attractive with the new boats that were launched so that people can drive to the jetties, park their cars to take a boat ride to their destinations. So, we need more investment in other modes and for road, we need attention to the inner roads,” Odewunmi stated.
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