Abuja – Mr Durojaye Olalekan, Principal Road Traffic Officer, FCT Directorate of Road Traffic Services, has urged citizens to cultivate the habit of good road culture by observing safety rules on the roads.
Olalekan, who made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja, said this would prevent accidents on the roads.
According to him, the problem road users have most of the time was poor compliance to traffic regulations.
He said many people, especially motorists, do not want to obey traffic rules and instructions when driving.
“Adherence to regulations and doing the right thing is the main problem in Nigeria, for instance, where Highway Code sets a speed limit at 120km, you find people doing 160km per hour.
“At a road meant to run into an intersection you will find people driving as if they are running into a park.
“A road is designed as an interchange if you want to use it to connect to other roads, but people wants to use it as parks.
“The pedestrian bridges are there for them but people don’t use it, nobody wants to stop at a bus stop because we wait for a vehicle at any point on the road.
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“So when the enforcement officers want to ensure that people use the road the way it should be used by arresting people, they see us in bad light, these are the issues,’’ Olalekan said.
The expert therefore advised citizens to exhibit the right behaviour on the roads in terms of application of the Highway Code in order to sustain the roads and preserve lives.
Olalekan further advised government to ensure that roads are constructed in line with high international standards.
“Government should try to create a standard for road construction not just the physical part of it, government should also look at the monitoring aspect to ensure compliance with regulations.
“For efficiency, the road designers should come up with better designs so as to ensure less accident in the use of our roads.
“For example in Abuja, the road design is in cycle where there are no bus stops thereby making the users to use force to create a way out of the design and thereby causing issues on our roads.
“As responsible citizens we must do our part and for the government to do its own part prescribed by law.
“Then we can be assured of sustainable roads that are not prone to accidents,” said the expert. (NAN)