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Still on BRT project

FEW days after the official commissioning of the BRT project on March 17 this year, I had occasion to address some salient points in my piece titled Keeping criminals off BRT terminals. It is now exactly six months since the buses have been on the road serving the people of Lagos and as one of the regular commuters I hasten to make certain observations.
Once again, I have to applaud Governor Babatunde Fashola's spirit of commitment to the project initiated by his predecessor and the mileage attained so far. One would be over-stating the obvious to say that the BRT project is already a success in terms of easing off the transport difficulty of commuters particularly the working class in Lagos.

One would not have imagined the possibility of an average corporate worker in Lagos riding in a public bus without being ruffled in the hustle and bustle of commuting to and from workin places. The dawn of the BRT operations has made it possible. Even car owners can now conveniently leave their vehicles at home and take pleasure ride to work and back in BRT buses.

However, beyond the glamour and convenience brought about by the BRT initiative, there is the need to draw the attention of the Lagos State Government and the managers of the project to certain manifesting lapses which if not checked would soon rubbish the project and consequently confirm the fears of cynics who never thought that the system would ever work.

It has been observed that a good number of the buses are carelessly driven such that some of them now go with shattered windscreen, broken head-lamps, dented bodies and damaged parts. Some drivers of these buses have literarily taken it that since the buses are government owned they should be driven with little or no caution as to their wear and tear.
One finds it difficult to understand why brand new buses that have been on the road for only six months should be plying the roads with visible damages that speak ill of the handlers of such buses.

In trying to understand the attitude of some drivers, one has observed that either they were recruited from among motor park touts or from the community of untrained commercial drivers because they do not exhibit attitudes of properly trained persons in terms of vehicle handling. A good number of them drive in a manner that has often elicited verbal reprimands from commuters who do not see any reason why a driver would deliberately drive on high speed into pot holes on a lane he plies daily.

The visible damages and dents on some of the buses occurred through the carelessness of the drivers.

Besides the attitude of drivers and the deliberate wear and tear on the buses, it has been observed that in some areas on the BRT lane, there are deep pot holes that are fast becoming deeper and widening in dimension. These constitute obstruction to smooth driving and an attempt to manoeuvre through; by the buses have occasionally caused some damage to the parts of the buses.

Such a spot can easily be noticed at BRT's CMS bus stop by Marina Waterfront. For weeks, it remained obstructive to BRT operations. Though, the managers of the project have embarked on rehabilitation work on the BRT lanes lately, yet there is the need to call for more proactive steps to be taken in minimising the periods such bad spots on the lanes are left unattended to.

Lastly, the BRT managers should learn to apply some measure of public relations in their operations. A situation where commuters taking off from the Mile 12 Terminus in the afternoon on Sundays are left to wait on queue for long period with the buses parked idling away because the drivers are on lunch break, does not speak well of the system.
Nobody is against drivers having their lunch, but they could be organised in such a manner that they go on lunch break not en mass, but in batches in other that movement of commuters is not put on hold until the drivers are back from break.

Above all, operators of the project should ensure that damaged buses are repaired in good time and returned to the pool to avoid a depletion syndrome that could ultimately affect the overall performance of the fleet.