Lagos State motorcycle and tricycle ban ‘’wahala’’
Here is what might happen after the government placed a ban on commercial motorcycles and tricycles from operating in major highways and streets in Lagos State.
The government of Lagos reintroduced a ban on commercial motorcycles and tricycles in many of the major residential and business clusters in the state.
WHY DID THE GOVERNMENT PLACE THE BAN
Quoting the Lagos state commissioner for information and strategy, Gbenga Omotosho said the ban was needed because of deaths, accidents, and disorderliness caused by the motorcycle taxis popularly known as “Okada” and commercial tricycles known as Keke napep. The (motorcycle — handling startup) have been discovered to be part of the problem they set out to solve. Stating that their riders are involved in accidents and breaking road rules he told CNN.
WHAT’S LEFT NOW (YELLOW BUSES VS BRT BUSES)
Immediately after the ban on tricycles and motorcycles, the Lagos state government rolled out 65 high capacity buses in addition to the existing buses, also assuring that 550 medium-capacity vehicles for feeder’s routes will be injected as soon as possible.
BIG EFFECTS
Although everyone knows about the loss of jobs and possibly increase in crime rate, here are some other effects.
MORE YELLOW BUSES
Even a blind man knows that if you stop “mama put”, the number of restaurants will increase and vice versa. There will be more yellow buses in Lagos and more conductors (assistant drivers) in the nearest future. Even though the Lagos government is trying hard to take over the transportation landscape, more individual will buy more buses to rival the state owed BRT buses.
TRAFFIC JAM
The traffic jam in Lagos is already chaotic and in the coming weeks some owners of tricycles and motorcycles will decide to venture into the yellow bus business. This will now turn into a YELLOW vs BRT transportation WAR. This might lead to more traffic jams in the future considering the size of each bus.
BAD BUSINESS CLIMATE
This might not be really visible but of course, it will be present. When the traffic jams in the city increase due to more buses, residents of the city might find it difficult to perform their daily business activities. The employee might end up getting to work late and as well return home late. Two days have gone by since that ban was placed report has it that the usual gridlock at Iyana-Liepaja, Iyana-dopemu, Bolade oshodi has persisted.
All of this might affect the ranking of Lagos in the ease of doing business index. In addition, investors might stay away from Lagos if they can’t break even from their investments because of terrible government policies.
BOTTOMLINE
This policy made by the Lagos state government might look great for now. But the future isn’t, because investors and entrepreneurs might stay away from Lagos if their investment cannot be backed by the business climate.
Lagos might fall down in the ranking of ease of doing business index.
More yellow buses will fill the street of Lagos which might result in more disorderliness thus increasing the chaotic nature of the natural commuting routines of the residents.
