Are The Dedicated BRT Lanes In Lagos Now Free For All? (See PHOTOS)

A common joke these days is that  – since losing out on his re-election bid – Governor Ambode has retired from working.

The basis for this – perhaps, humorous – theory is what appears to be a relaxed administration on several government functions in the state.

A good example is how, these days, there seem to be little or no effort to clear the ubiquitous heaps of refuse on the streets.

Well, this might appear as a mischievous theory, but certain activities seem to support that line of thought.

For instance, one function that has been significantly relaxed is the enforcement of the non-violation of the law prohibiting the use of the BRT lanes by non-BRT, non-emergency vehicles. Instead, it has become a common sight to this law being contravened.

The dedicated BRT lanes are now used by Okadas, Danfos, personal vehicles, military or police vehicles, etc., use the BRT lanes to escape traffic bottlenecks.

Interestingly, the once-upon-a-time efficient BRT Lane Monitoring task force appear to have gone missing.

It is worthy of note that during the administration of Gov. Fashola, there was a strict adherence to that law.

However,  these day, it appears as if  LASTMA officials– who are the primary enforcers of this law – seem to have decided to look the other way. Some theorists suggest that this became a common practice after the rebuke of the LASTMA officials by Governor Ambode for a more “civil” way of dealing with traffic law offenders.

Violation of this law is particularly noticeable on the Ikorodu-Expressway Road BRT lane corridor.