Commuting in Lagos, is a major stressor.

Have you ever looked into the reason why traffic starts building up as early as 6am on the roads in Lagos Monday through Friday? Have you ever wondered why some people leave their houses as early as 4 am to get to work despite their resumption time starting at 8am? About a 4hours difference to resumption time. No other reason than the peculiar traffic congestion in Lagos.

It is worthy of note that the traffic in Lagos adds stress unconsciously to one’s life. Sometimes we wonder why we feel tired just getting into the office early in the morning having done no official task. We keep asking questions like, where is this stress coming from? Look no further, it is the stress accumulated from commuting longer hours on the road. A stressor that is beginning to look inevitable since the infrastructural position of the state for the most part is in a state of decadence.

If you ever work on the island in Lagos and you stay on the mainland, you cannot escape the long stretch of traffic on the 3rd mainland bridge or the Alaka-Apongbon bridge. With an average of 40mins travel time on either of the bridges linking the island and the mainland together.  This totals to approximately 1hr 20mins daily commute to work. Some residents that live in the Ikorodu axis of the metropolis have opted for a fairer route by exploring the use of ferries which is faster but unsafe due to the bad conditions of the life jacket.  This helps them to save time from the road transport and its traffic idle time. However, we cannot shy away from the risks attached to our waterways, especially in safety. As much as this is a faster way of commuting, a lot of citizens have concerns for the safety of their lives due to poor maintenance of the facility.

Also, in the quest to find solutions to this commuting stress, some chose to alter their sleeping time by waking early as possible say 3.30am and set out as early as 4.30am to get to work by 6 am and then in turn continue the sleep in the office till 8am which is resumption time. As much as this idea seems to be widely accepted, It is like robbing Peter to pay Paul because you deny yourself adequate sleeping time to beat the traffic on the road.

Productivity at the workplace can be optimized if we reduce or remove the stress that comes with commuting to work within the Lagos metropolis. I have cousins who dread visiting Lagos because of the above-mentioned reasons. The life span of your car is reduced, depreciation moves faster than speculated, your healthy lifestyle is affected, and your eating habit is disrupted. You are unable to give specific timing for an appointment etc. The life of a Lagosian is incomplete without the experience of traffic congestion.  Be that as it may, we must consciously work on the balance one way or the other else, the frequent visit to the hospital will be inevitable.