Hello everyone in the wonderful hive blockchain. I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the weather wherever you are. Once again, I’m grateful to the hive learners’ community for their amazing initiatives.
The hive learners’ community has again presented us with another amazing topic, I’m so glad to be participating in it.
Traffic jams can be very frustrating and annoying. Imagine spending more than 6 or 7 hours in a place, stuck in your car seat. Things even become worse when you are not in your private car. Imagine traveling in a commercial bus (without air conditioning and with so many people inside) and you get stuck in traffic for more than 6 hours. The heat can even make you faint.
I’m sure a lot of Nigerians, especially Lagosians have a tale to tell when it comes to their worst experience in a traffic jam. One of the reasons why I don’t like traveling to Lagos is because of the long-lasting, annoying, and frustrating traffic jams. Lagosians spend more than 6 hours in traffic every day. It has even become a part of them that it has become unusual to go on roads that are known to be loaded with heavy traffic and not see one.
My grandma lives in Lagos, and once in a while my parents and I pay her a visit. There was a time when we got stuck in traffic for a long period (I was about 10 or 12 years old at that time). We had to get out of the car so we didn't run out of breath. That was when my mom decided it’d be better to travel on a train (although it is slower, it is still better than being stuck in a position for hours).
One of the reasons why I like to call Lagosians survivors is how they manage to cope with the traffic jams. For you to survive in Lagos, you must be an early riser. If you’re the type of person that wakes up by 10 a.m, then for sure, Lagos is not for you. To get to their destination (work place) early and for them to bypass traffic jams, they wake up as early as 4 am (some even wake up earlier than that). Traffic jams have a huge impact on the lives of people. I’ve heard lots of stories of people who gave birth in traffic jams. Yes! Although I've never witnessed it, my mum has. I've also heard stories of those that lost their lives due to heavy traffic jams.
My parents and I live in Osun State, although there are times when we get stuck in traffic, it is nothing compared to that of Lagos.
I’ve experienced a lot of traffic jams, but the worst of them all was when I got stuck in traffic on my way from school.
This incident happened some years back when I was in JSSS 3 (Junior Secondary School 3/ Grade 9). The distance from my school to my house was not a trekable one, so I had to take a bike when going and a bus (sometimes a bike) when coming back. In preparation for the Junior WAEC (West African Examination Council) , my school made it compulsory for all Jss3 students to wait behind for extra lessons. After all the other students had gone home, we would wait behind for about 3 hours.
On this fateful day, we had a lot of things to do in preparing for the CCA (cultural and creative arts) exam where we had to make things like baskets, brooms, shoes, and so on. We finished very late in the evening, around 6 pm. To worsen the case, it started to rain, so we had to stay in our class till the rain stopped.
And when it finally did, we packed our things and got ready to go to our various homes. To my greatest surprise, When I got out of the school building I couldn’t see any bike or bus in sight. The lucky ones among us were those that lived very close to the school, but for the unlucky ones, we had to trek to the bus stop. When we got to the bus stop, there was just one bus left, and there were only 5 free seats left. We were about 9. Instead of rushing and fighting, we agreed to manage the seats. Imagine 9 people in 5 seats! The driver still collected prices for 9 people, he said something like “he’d be using extra fuel” . It was the last bus, so we had no other choice than to pay him.
The driver got into the bus and started driving. It was very uncomfortable but still manageable. Everything was going partially alright, not until the driver stopped suddenly. At first, I thought he stopped to drop off a passenger, but when I looked up, I saw how cars, trucks, and bikes lined up as if they were on an assembly line. The driver got down to check things out, and after a few minutes he returned and said we would be stuck there till the next morning, because no car, not even bikes are able to move, plus there was no road safety officer there.
One thing that was on my mind was my family, I knew they’d be very worried and would've tried to do a lot of things. What was supposed to be a 30 minutes drive was now turning into 40 minutes and we hadn't even reached halfway. Although I enjoyed the gists from other passengers (they talked about a lot of things😂😂), it became unbearable (remember I was carrying someone on my legs), so I had to get down from the bus. I looked at my wristwatch, it was past 7. One of my classmates also got down, so we started trekking. It wasn't easy for us to find our way. And after what I call, the longest steps of my life, we made it past the traffic jam. There was still no bus or bike, so we had to continue trekking. Although it was fun (really, was it?😂😂) we talked and laughed, but my legs suffered.
Luckily, after a few minutes, I saw my neighbor who was riding a bike. I called him. At first, he didn't hear, but when I yelled about three times he finally stopped and we ran to meet him. He dropped my classmate at his house and took me home. As I was expecting, my parents and siblings were outside waiting for me.
When I entered, I was so tired that after pulling off my school uniform, I slept off immediately. Luckily, the next day was Saturday (a school-free day).