Commuting in a busy and crowded city like Lagos can sometimes be overwhelming, and making traffic jams characteristics the megacity is known for.
With over 20 million people living in the state, a large percentage of the population rely on public transport for their mobility and spend several productive hours in traffic but now there are new technologies reshaping the way we move, while also improving the efficiency of the transport systems.
Innovative transportation technologies such as autonomous vehicles and electric bicycles are helping people conveniently get to their destination faster and with fewer resources.
Oluwatobi Fakayode, founder of Bossbus discussed how we can leverage technology to improve the transport system in the country.
CFA: Oluwatobi, welcome to Tech Trends
Oulwatobi: how are you doing?
CFA: awesome, you are in the transport sector, so start by sharing with us, what are some of the challenges that sector is experiencing today?
Oluwatobi: Let me just talk about problems facing transportation generally in Nigeria with reference to Lagos. I think one of our biggest transportation problems in Lagos is traffic.
Traffic is experienced almost all over the world because it is a very big issue, you look at the effectiveness and work efficiency especially for businessmen, SMEs, people who have to move from one place to another.
In Lagos for example, you realize that you can hardly visit one or two, three places a day because of traffic especially when you have to do things at peak periods, work hours so congestion is heavy and the reason there is this traffic congestion, in not just Lagos but urban areas generally is because of rapid urbanization.
This is because everybody wants to move to the urban areas because they believe that there are more opportunities available.
For example, if you remember our Nollywood, most of the people living in the village, where are they going?
They are going to Lagos and if you look at the statistic, statistics say over 500,000 people are relocating to Lagos every year and unfortunately, the roads are not expanding, the roads remain the same and this is a very huge challenge and the working class in Lagos are heavy stock on their vehicles and this is a very big problem, another problem we are facing is road and road maintenance, improper planning, most of these roads were not planned properly.
They didn’t envisage the amount of population explosion that we’re seeing in the urban areas today and that is a very big problem.
CFA: The question now is, how can technology help, what is the way for technology?
Oluwatobi: Technology has always, over the years being the platform with which life is made better, easier, and more convenient for people all over the world and in any sector. Technology has always…Watch the full video here.
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