Lagos Takes Traffic Management To Schools
Indeed the traffic situation in the city of Lagos has been a very harrowing experience. Avoidable traffic gridlocks resulting in man-hour loss and also unnecessary deaths, injuries as well as damage and loss of property from traffic crashes.
According to Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), the lack of traffic knowledge and poor attitudes by the general public has been the singular most critical challenge faced in the discharge of its duty of ensuring free traffic flow on Lagos roads.
As part of efforts at addressing the seemingly intractable problem, the state government last week launched Lagos State School Advocacy Programme (LASTSAP) with a slogan 'Be Road Friendly' and initiative said to be carefully designed and quite unique traffic education programme for primary school pupils and secondary school students.
It was gathered that the target became imperative in view of the fact that majority of the commercial drivers as well as professional drivers in the state are either primary school graduates or those that attempted secondary education without exposure to traffic safety education.
There is no doubt that many of the behaviours and attitudes towards road use are mostly developed as children.
With an estimated population of 18 million, and a vehicular density of 15 times the national average (224 vehicular/km in Lagos), there is likelihood that traffic flow would be quite enormous with its attendant man-hour loss.
And that is how it is in the city of Lagos where the citizenry pay little or no attention to traffic rules and regulations. As expected, traffic congestion has become a daily occurrence especially in certain areas as men of the LASTMA and other traffic agencies in the state battle daily to manage this traffic crisis.
Speaking at the launch, held at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Governor Babatunde Fashola noted that people tend to undermine the significance of the child in the society instead of tapping into the instant global communication across vast distance, which has made children even more informed than adults at their age.
"Our personalities, attitudes, habits, inclinations and predispositions as adults are often shaped during our childhood years. The most effective way to shape the attitude of tomorrow's adult as a responsible citizen is therefore to positively influence the development of his or her character as a child today. The keen awareness of the world around them at a tender age can therefore be effectively utilised to help us achieve the necessary level of road safety awareness, imperative in a Mega City where millions of people must transit from one point to the other on a daily basis," he stressed.
According to Fashola, with the programme, coded 'Be Road Friendly' (BRF) pupils, students and teachers in both public and private schools in the state, will be exposed to various road safety values, ideas, programmes and other road traffic safety measures that would be communicated to them. He disclosed that the programme has been broken into different components to ensure a holistic learning process and guarantee its success.
"The first is the introduction of Safety Clubs in all public and private primary and secondary schools in the state where traffic safety lessons, practical exercise, quiz competitions will be used to improve the traffic awareness of these children. Second is the design of School Traffic Safety Zones within the schools, which is aimed at promoting and enhancing safety environment around the schools. It will involve the installation of zebra crossings, road signage, traffic signs, traffic safety corners in all the schools to complement the learning skills acquired from the Traffic Safety Clubs," he stated
"The driver safety awareness training component of the programme is to ensure that every school bus driver, vehicle owner and other drivers within the school environment is properly trained on how to be safety conscious and protect the lives of the young and innocent future leaders."
In his welcome address, Special Adviser to the Governor on Transportation, Kayode Opeifa, recalled that in previous engagements in tackling traffic problems and safety, the "relevance and importance of the greatest change factor, which are the children in effecting change.
"How beautiful, lovely and how safe will the traffic situation in Lagos would have been if the three million driving professionals or people driving for commercial purposes including you and I have the opportunity of early Drivers and Traffic Education in life. We would have improved Road Safety, improved Drivers' attitude, imbibe Road Signage knowledge and thereby reduce accidents, traffic, pollution and the associated bad road users' habit that we all are used to today," he reflected.
Father of the day and former Minister for Works and Housing, Olufemi Okunnu, who expressed joy said that the state government is finally putting structures on ground to tackle the twin problem of Road Safety and Traffic Control in the state.
According to him, the programme is commendable because it is geared towards catching the students young.
"The programme offers traffic education in all its aspects: how to use the road as pedestrians, how to cross the roads. It also teaches them international road signs and what is expected of the driver, and for government to facilitate proper use of the road by providing good road and road signs, properly designated bus stops instead of every-inch of the road as a bus stop as it is at the moment. Above all, government is to vigorously and on a continuous basis enforce all traffic regulations and enhance road for all," he stated.
Tags: Lagos , Traffic
