Expert urges FG to ensure best practice in urban mobility
Mr John Emmanuel, a transport specialist and Head, Ochenuel Mobility (a Transport Growth Initiative), have urged the Federal Government to ensure current best practice to achieve urban mobility in Nigeria.
Emmanuel said this during the Africa Sustainable Urban Mobility Course organised in collaboration with various transport growth initiatives in Abuja on Monday.
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The theme of the programme is, “Building the Capacity of Stakeholders Towards Urban Mobility Reform in Africa“.
According to Emmanuel, the focus of transport all over is a combination of public transport and all other Non Motorised Transport (NMT), where cycling, mobility for persons with disabilities is mainstreamed.
He said it was important for the continent to learn from each other because what Nigeria is doing may not conform to what was happening in Ghana, Uganda, Ethiopia and other countries.
He said: ”when we come together, as we have done today, we criss cross ideas, we learn from each other, we show case best practices and we pick lessons from it to go and develop further.
”Our focus is to ensure that city authorities responsible for transport development, researchers, decisions makers, consultants and businessmen in transport come together, learn best practices and go further to implement them.
”And that way we can be sure to have a reform in our urban mobility systems in the future where public transport become the focus combined with non motorised transport.”
Emmanuel said many cities in the world were conforming to current best practice but this was not the case with Nigeria.
He, however, advised that the government, policy makers and various stakeholders in the sector to learn the best practice and ensure its implementation to grow the sector.
“They should come to this kind of programme, learn best practices like is seen in other parts of the world and start implementing rather than continual expansion of roads and making policies that do not work.
”We should avoid obsolate ways of planning cities, you don’t plan cities and put wide speeding roads for cars at the city centres.
”Abuja city roads is patterned after US roads, like New York, but New York is currently closing down those wide speeding roads and turning them to bicycle lanes.
”We need to do what the US and other parts of the World are doing. Narrow the roads, put public transport, make cycling safe and people will not have need to use their cars.
”If you put BRT lane that is efficient along mararaba road for instance and I am sure that if the bus drops me im sure to have a bicycle to rent to my office, I will not use my car.
”Therefore, the road expansion that is currently being done to ease traffic will no longer be necessary as everybody will move from riding personal cars to using public transport and that is the practice all over the world,” he added.
Some of the participants told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the programme was long overdue, adding that it would go a long way to ensure development of the sector in the continent.
Mr Saleh Yarima, the Director, Engineering Services, Bauchi State Urban Development Planning, reiterated the importance of urban mobility in Nigeria and the continent.
Yarima said it was important to increase the mode of transportation facilities by expanding carriage ways, provide walkways for pedestrians and provide cycling lanes among others.
He expressed hope that the training would be put to efficient use to better the country, the continent and the World at large.
NAN reports that the course was attended by government representatives, experts, stakeholders and professionals in the transport sector in the continent.
