Driving in Lagos, Survival of the fittest - Part One

As a car owner in Lagos, i take this time out to write about this very important topic.

Driving in Lagos, driving tests, traffic signs, traffic law enforcement etc.

Before i even started any practical as regards driving, the first thing I had to learn was the theoretical aspects of driving which includes rules and regulations, signs etc.

I can categorically remember as a young boy then, some of the rules that I can never forget include:

1. Always make way for traffic on your left.
2.  The second is like unto the first, the car in a roundabout is king so you have to make way for him when he is on the roundabout. The car joining a roundabout will be on the right so the car on the roundabout will on the left so you have to make way for him.
3. Always give a space of at least a car's length between you and the car in front of you.
4. Never over take on the right side of a vehicle.
5. Never overtake at a bend.
6. Never overtake when the road markers (lines on the road) are broken lines and not continuous and many more

These laws seem not to apply when driving in Lagos! Majority of Lagos driver are potential stunt drivers who clearly do not have an understanding or prefer to ignore this rules.

Lagos driving is a survival of the fittest, everybody in a hurry, nobody ready to wait or adhere to the rules that govern the road.

For example:

1. If you want to leave a major road to a side lane or a service lane, the cars on the service lane are supposed to wait for you to pass.  In Lagos that will be seen as stupidity if you wait.
2. If you leave a cars length between you and the car in front of you, you might never reach your destination because Lagos drivers see any space as an opportunity to shunt between lanes.
3. Nobody waits for the car on the roundabout anymore; rather they take it by force even though you are the rightful owner.

The yellow buses, molue buses and the BRT buses are even worse!!! The threaten to hit your  car in the process of getting ahead of you by force.

There is no longer the concept of fast lanes and slow lanes, cars drive on whatever lane the feel at whatever speed they feel like.

What makes it even worse is that if you try to do the right thing, you will be hit by an avalanche of blaring horns from vehicles behind you and there is usually a comment that comes with it "If you do not know how to drive, go get a driver or better still go pack your car at home". Who does not know how to drive?

If you stop or do not move at a yellow light, that calls for the wrath of the drivers behind you. From what I learnt, Yellow light means "slow down, its about to go red" or "Get ready, it’s about to turn green". Green means move and red means stop.

Motor bikes never even seem to obey any traffic laws!!! Their matter is a topic for another day.

At pedestrian crossings or zebra crossings as popularly called, cars do hardly wait for pedestrians. It is a two way thing, even the pedestrians do not know that you gain right of passage by stepping on the line! Not by standing on the embankment or side walk.

MOTORISTS – When a pedestrian has stepped onto the crossing, you must stop.
PEDESTRIANS – Make your intention clear, but ensure the traffic has stopped before you proceed

I was in Kano sometime last year and I observed that these rules were kept to the letter, at roundabouts; cars wait till there is no car before they get onto the roundabout. That is not to say that there are no traffic offenders, but you have less traffic violators that observers which is directly opposite to the situation in Lagos.

Why is Lagos peculiar? Driving in Lagos is indeed like a jungle, survival of the fittest.

In the second part of this write up, we will be looking at the law enforcement agencies saddled with the responsibility of  maintaining sanity on the roads.