Alternative Means Of Transportation Meant To Resolve Road Traffic
Transportation is the bedrock of development in any society since it provides the means for people to transact business, help manufacturing of goods possible through adequate supply of raw materials, helps industrial growths through adequate distribution of manufactured goods to consumers, and it also helps individual specifically for easy movement from place to place, etc.
Nigeria as a country has had several means of transport in the past including; rail ways, ships, ferry boats, and good number of domestic flights, etc.
But what came about these means of transport that within few years interval some of them has become non-functional, while some has reduced drastically instead of increasing in number and patronage.
A good example of such is the rail ways and water transportation, even recently the air transportation has started experiencing the same problem due to the recession of the country economy.
The question on everyone’s mind is; what exactly is making Nigerians rely wholly on road transportation?
Just like most developed nations, when the interest for road transport is very high, the nation will start investing more in their roads and start building more road networks with better quality.
The discoveries on Nigerian tarred roads revealed that none of the roads would stay functional for up to 5 years without having potholes on them.
In most cases, some of the roads become in-accessible with a vehicle due to the high levels of potholes and water accumulated within the road. What do you think could be the cause of such problem? Does it mean that those roads were built with sub-standard materials?
The roads within the Southern Nigeria can be said to have these problems than the ones from the northern Nigeria, the major reason for this can be attributed to the high use of the roads.
The industrial and commercial activities within the country mostly occur within the southern Nigeria, therefore the roads within the part are prone to rapid deterioration.
Being frank, most of the roads in Nigeria were constructed according to global standard but due to over-usage of the roads especially through the conveying of industrial materials, petroleum products, and other heavy duty vehicles which include construction vehicles which ought to use other means of transport including water ways and rail ways.
However, it will be beneficial if the country pays attention to other means of transport with the aim of decongesting the roads for private and commercial vehicles only. It will go a long way to reduce the creation of potholes on the roads and increase the usability of other means of transportation.
However, this does not elude the fact that some of the Nigeria roads could have been made with poor materials leading to their frequent and easy breakdown.
Hence, it is our duty to ensure that road construction is not politicized with the contractors, rather the contractors should be thoroughly investigated during the construction process to ensure the quality of the road is according to standard.
