Segun Ayinde, Abeokuta
Commissioner for Transportation in Ogun State, Engr. Gbenga Dairo, has disclosed that the Intelligent Transport System (ITS) initiative, designed to manage safety of traffic lights would reduce workload of the Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE) and facilitate smoother traffic flow on major roads statewide.
Dairo, who stated this in an exclusive interview at his office in Abeokuta, the state capital, said that the innovative system would ensure the efficient and coordinated operation of traffic signals, optimise traffic management, reducing congestion and travel times as well as enhancing overall road safety.
He said that by streamlining the initiative will enable TRACE to focus on more strategic and critical aspects of traffic management, ultimately improving the driving experience for commuters in the state with a view to improve traffic flow of vehicle on major roads from one place to another.
He said that the introduction of the intelligent transport initiative was not to take away the job of TRACE officers, but minimize road congestion to avoid accidents as well as managing the safety of traffic lights at different junction which would assist and alleviate operational errors at road junctions.
Dairo said” Well the ones that you are familiar with are the traffic lights, but the intelligent Transport System is to manage the safety of traffic lights at junction, so when you have the traffic light at the Junction is replaces the human factors this days we have the Trace officers and police men controlling traffic and they are prone to errors and mistakes from time to time. Sometimes the junctions are too big for them to manage one way of dealing with that is to introduce the system.”
“In Ogun State we have about 800 Trace officers for a state that is about almost 180 km to west and 90km North to South compared to Lagos which have about 5000 Lines man officers basically the point I am making is that we don’t have trace officers enough to cover the traffic to cover the entirety of the state anything we can do to reduce their work load will be positive.” he noted.
The commissioner, who is the Chairman of the Nigerian Transport Commissioners Forum, had at a meeting with stakeholders in the transport sectors across the country, including government agencies, private Sector players, and Civil societies, emphasized the need to focus on actionable strategies for implementing ITS in 36 states of the federation.
He explained that through data collection, political will and collaborative efforts towards realising a safer and more efficient transport system would stakeholders in Nigeria revolutionise the road transport sector of the country.
“Information is the foundation of progress. We must gather data, process it, and use it to drive informed decisions that will transform our transport systems”.
“Political will is the live wire of the Intelligent Transport System. Without it, even the best plans will remain on paper. We must unite to push for the necessary policies, funding, and enforcement mechanisms to make ITS a reality in Nigeria,” the commissioner added.
