Friday 27th of march mad, heavy traffic, gridlock, Lagos Island
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Awolowo - Falomo Bridge
Lagos has been at a standstill all day and heavy traffic starting from Bonny camp has spread to Ojodu Berger and beyond. People spent an average of 4:30 hours from the mainland to the Island. If you have any plan to visit Victoria Island today, the best thing to do is to cancel it. I feel sorry for people who are stuck in that traffic with Manual gears and without A/C or with 10 litres of fuel. Believe me, you don’t want to be caught in that traffic by sunset when armed robbers and mobile phone agents are likely to take undue advantage of the unfortunate incidence.
Why the gridlock? A dead container trailer blocked the road to Bonny camp completely, such that even Okadas cannot squeeze into the tiny space leaving the whole of Lagos no other choice than to go through Falomo bridge, the second of three land ways to get into V.I. (The third option is the Ikorodu-Epe expressway). As a result, traffic from the third mainland bridge and Western Avenue all explore means to get to Falomo bridge either through Awolowo Road or Osbourne/Kingsway.
Zoom in on Awolowo Road
I don’t even want to think about the amount of man-hours or fuel burnt in traffic, I just know the State Government will come up with a law limiting trailers henceforth. For the sake of one man, Lagos suffered terribly on a Friday. Thank God it’s Friday!
Going home? Well, I’ll let you know how it is, that’s if people have not explored the unlawful one-way option, thereby blocking all incoming routes. As for me, I’m not leaving the Island until 9:45pm, or better still 11:00pm. Don’t wait for me though, cos I can as well crash somewhere on the Island… or in the car.
Enjoy your weekend.
March 27th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
wow. gud luck Lagosians.
Xsi, du u still think d AOL survey was far-fetched?
btw, dat Simon’s article was great.
March 27th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Thanks Switz, the AOL survey was exaggerated joo, Fash is trying is best, abeg it was worse years back. Simon has made a name for himself now. Trust.
Eko o ni baje o!
March 29th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
what you said is very true, i was in that traffic for more than 5 hours.i parked my car somewhere in gerrad road because of overheating and took bike to the office
March 29th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
WOW.. the traffic was mad.. pple actually got to work around 2pm nd d people dat left their houses around 5.30am nd got to tollgate go to the office around 10.30am.. it was horrible heard it was a trailer container though at the adeniji end.. left my house around 11am for an appointment went thru western avenue nd got to vi around 2.30pm.. nd i could still c d long traffic on thirdmainland..
nobody’s sayin fash aint tryin bro…
March 30th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Samson, you are very correct. You know these things don’t happen all the time, and when they do, it’s usually crazy. We’ve seen worse ones than this e.g. Redemption Camp extension. People have slept on the third mainland bridge in the last 2 years due to traffic. Hopefully when all’s well and done, we’ll have a system to help us decide whether to even leave home or not. Time is money. Thanks.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:36 am
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