By Aliyu DANLADI
A traffic expert, Mr Patrick Adenusi, has advised the Federal Government to enforce private ownership of truck parks to curb revenue losses and perennial Apapa gridlock in line with global standards.
Adenusi, a consultant with Safety Beyond Borders, a traffic NGO gave the advise on Monday in Lagos.
He said indiscriminate parking of articulated vehicles on port access routes caused huge losses in terms of man-hours and revenue and appealed for drastic action to ease the gridlock and improve the nation’s revenue.
He appealed to the federal government to urgently enforce private ownership of truck parks.
Adenusi added that a few truck owners had parks, and that the principle should be enforced for all truck owners to ensure they stopped parking on the highways.
“Some of the trucks parked on the highways are not supposed to be there. The road is not a parking lot.
“About 60 per cent of those trucks on Mile 2 side of Oshodi-Apapa Expressway and the ones on the Ijora side do not have any business on that road. Some of them park on the road looking for business.
“If you look at owners of luxury buses, they all have their own yard where their vehicles park. Along that Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, there is a company that has a park for their trucks.
“What you see on those port access roads are trucks that are looking for business, they stay on the highways looking for patronage instead of waiting at a truck park.
“So, instead of them parking in their various yards to wait for when a customer needs their service, before they come to the ports, they prefer staying on the road,” he said.
Adenusi said it was not the responsibility of government to build truck parks for transporters because it was a private duty of the business owners.
“Bankers are not asking government to build banking halls for them so, why should truck owners ask government to construct parks for them?
“If transporters should build their own truck parks, it will take 60 per cent of trucks off Apapa roads, the roads will be free and pedestrians and other motoring public will have a free motoring experience.
“Government should encourage these transporters to have their own parks and enforce it, stop them from parking on the roads,” he said.
The traffic expert also called on government to fix bad roads and discourage parking on the highways and bridges, which causes quick road degeneration.
“Government is not showing concern about the threat of stationary trucks on Apapa roads and bridges. There is nobody that opens their eyes and sees the roads they laboured to build disintegrating except they have issues.
“The quality of most bridges in Lagos has been compromised but to continually allow the deterioration to continue is what I find difficult,” he said.
TBI Africa correspondent who took a trip on the Mile 2 Apapa Road report that articulated vehicles have completely blocked the three lanes on the Apapa bound carriageway.
It was observed that commercial vehicles could not go beyond the top of the Mile 2 Bridge and they discharged passengers to tens of waiting commercial motorcycle operators to convey them through narrow paths between trucks.
