FRSC boss urges government to decongest traffic by expanding roads

The Corp Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has some traffic advice.

Speaking at the yearly conference of the

In his paper, titled “Transportation as Catalyst for National Development: The Nigerian Experience”, the FRSC boss said: “The loss of human capital through avoidable road traffic crash must be stopped.

When Nigeria becomes an economic giant by 2020, the estimated 40 million vehicles that will drive on Nigerian roads would impact significantly on increased number of containers and tankers on the highways.

We project that the current, 5,000 tankers transporting 150 million litters of fuel daily, would by 2020, require about 20,000 tankers and trailers to transport haulage across the country as we would have become an economic giant.

This therefore means that as more tankers and trailers leave the ports with fuel and containers, the collective impact they will have on traffic congestion especially on roads along the ports, particularly the Apapa – Oshodi and Lagos–Ibadan Expressways can only be imagined, except urgent and practical public policies are formulated to mitigate the envisaged impacts, even where the roads are expanded,” he stated.

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Oyeyemi also advised the government to reduce traffic nationwide, by building up Mass Transit schemes, such as, the Lagos Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).

According to him, providing these schemes will reduce the number of vehicles on the road.

“The main driver of the economy which leads to national development is transportation. When transport volume increases, it is a pointer to a growing economy as the per capita value rises, purchasing power increases, so it translates to increased motorization."

Do you agree with his advice?