Lagos is one of the most congested cities in the world. 40 percent of cars in Nigeria are registered in Lagos. Commuters spend at least three hours in traffic each day.

Traffic congestion leads to many unforeseen problems for the residents of Lagos.

For example, the fatal accident rate in Lagos is 28 per 100,000 people.

This is three times greater than in most European cities.

Also, air pollution is over 5 times greater than the recommended limit.

For many Lagosians, enduring traffic jams is one of the rites of the “Lagos hustle,” normalised so much that it has been adopted as a lifestyle.

Although traffic congestion is the most prevalent and intractable of the challenges facing urban transportation in developing countries; the population and size of Lagos especially are major contributors to the challenge.

With the city currently growing at a rate between seven and eight percent annually, Lagos’s population growth percentage rate is 10 times faster than those of New York and Los Angeles cities in the much bigger United States.

Reports have recently surfaced that Lagos State may be losing as much as N4 trillion annually to traffic congestion

This is contained in a study by a Lagos-based research institute, Danne Institute.

Furthermore, access to Apapa, a popular port area of Lagos metropolis, playing host to two of the busiest seaports in Nigeria, has become a recurring nightmare from whichever direction one wants to get to the port city.

Whether from Oshodi axis, Ijora, Ajegunle or Lagos-Badagry expressway, the traffic situation has worsened in the past few months, resulting in commuters, port users and workers, whose offices are located within Apapa, now spending several hours to access their destinations on a daily basis.

Lagos traffic: motion without progress

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