Lagos is arguably the largest metropolitan city in Nigeria and I can refer to it as the busiest state in the country but then it goes well with the city's slogan "Centre of Excellence". The city of Lagos definitely never sleeps.
One thing that will always amaze me about Lagos is the population size compared to the land mass of the state. The most recent census shows that the population size is 8,048,430, it feels as though the population size is more than that sometimes.
Now to talk about my experiences in Lagos, I've had good and bad one's in Lagos but today I'll be talking about transportation in Lagos from my point of view ofcourse, I don't own a car yet so I often use public transportation.
Depending on where you are, where you're going and your budget, there are different types of public transportation to meet your needs. We have Bikes (mostly called okada), Tricycles (Napep or Maruwa) Taxis, Bus rapid transit (Brt), My least favorite are the yellow buses they're popularly referred to as Danfo. These are the ones I use mostly so I'll be talking about each of them:
- Bikes: The only reason I'll take a bike anywhere is if that's the only way of transport to where I'm going or if I'm trying to beat traffic. Many people see bikes as death traps and this is mostly due to the reckless driving of most of these bikers.
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- Tricyles: Mostly referred to as Napep, I feel they are a safer and are usually a lot cheaper. The thing is they don't have access to all the routes, I can't imagine myself taking a napep from Yaba to Idumota.
- Taxis: Now this is for when you're well loaded or in my case, I'll only take a taxi when I have money to spare. There's Uber, Taxify and other taxi services too. I think they're the safest and chillest means of public transport. The thing about them I really don't fancy is that they're charge per meter and in a place like Lagos where traffic is second nature, the prices are not really predictable.
- Bus Rapid Transit: Popularly called brt, it's an initiative that was created by the Lagos state government. It is cheap, traffic free and if you're sitting it is very comfortable. The one thing about this means of transport is you have to be patient because the queues are crazy. If you have to be somewhere by 8am,, try to get to the bus station by 6:30 or maybe 7 because it is very possible to queue for that long especially during working days. Another thing about these buses is you have options; if you have time to spare you could just be on the "sitting" queue but if you're perhaps in a hurry you could be on the "standing" queue. Standing in a Brt is uncomfortable but then you'll get to where you're going quicker and that's a plus.
- Yellow buses: I call them yellow buses because, well, they're yellow but they're mostly referred to as Danfo. This is my least preffered means of transport in Lagos and everytime I manage to enter one something will most likely go wrong, It's either I have an issue with the "conductor" about my change or someone else is fighting with the conductor ( these guys call passengers and collect the fares). The One time I'll probably not forget is the day a conductor insulted me all because I did not have change ( his choice of words were really colourful), I was speechless and the really painful part was he just dropped me off mid-way all because I did not have change. If you're driving your own car you'll most likely see these buses as nuisances and that's because they're either driving rough or they're causing traffic. They wait at all busstops for minutes and just waste time and I usually find these buses very uncomfortable. One thing that comes to my mind is that without these buses though, Lagos roads will probably look weird and different , so I'll just say they're a big part of the "crazy of Lagos".
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All these things I've been going on about are just a small part of the things that really make up the city of Lagos. I look forward to sharing more of these things with y'all.
Thank you very much for reading✌.