The Lagos state government has made another significant move to enhance road safety within its territory, by installing speed limit cameras in some locations.
For many years, the city, known to be the most cosmopolitan amongst the other 35 states, did not have clearly outlined speed limits signs on many roads, as only a few roads bore speed limit signs.
Hence, the Lagos state ministry of transportation, in partnership with Huawei Technologies, recently introduced four new Intelligent Transport System (ITS) sites to monitor speed violations and improve traffic management.
The government also announced plans to install 3,000 e-police and speed limit cameras across the state to enhance enforcement.
The state commissioner for Transportation, Oluwaseun Osiyemi, said the new ITS checkpoint sites are designed to detect over-speeding, which, according to him, is a major cause of road accidents.
“One checkpoint is located at Alapere, Ogudu Road, with a speed limit of 80km/h, while the other is installed at Nitel, Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, with a speed limit of 60km/h,” he said.
He added that two e-police monitoring stations have been installed at Allen Avenue Junction and Nurudeen Olowopopo Road to track various traffic infractions.
Violators fine is N20,000 for running a red light and N50,000 for exceeding speed limits.
However, the move has been criticized as some motorists and residents who allege that the initiative is primarily a revenue-generation move.
We have also observed that the government is yet to install enough noticeable Speed Limit signs on the roads, even as the awareness has not been fantastic.
On the Third Mainland Bridge for instance, most of the poles have been taken over by adverts while only one or two Speed Limit signs were noticed by Transport Day.
We also think that the fine is too high, as it should be reduced, at least for now, until awareness campaigns are launched in large scale for more motorists to be in the know.
