Two Nigerian scholars based in the United States of America, Professor Jacob Oluwoye and Mr Eyitayo Olaleye, have said electric vehicles, if properly deployed, were capable of curbing the chaotic transportation problem of Lagos State.
Oluwoye, who is a Nigerian-American Professor of Transportation and Environmental Health, teaches at the Department of Community and Regional Planning, College of Agricultural, Life and Natural Sciences, Alabama A&M University, Normal, USA.
Olaleye is a Transportation Planner at the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments, Waterbury, Connecticut, U.S.A.
In a statement jointly written by Oluwoye and Olaleye, both scholars said lack of adequate data remained the bane of Nigeria’s development.
The statement made available to our correspondent on Tuesday commended the Lagos State Government for taking delivery of the first set of electric vehicles to be used for public transportation.
It also explained that curbing greenhouse gases through the use of electric vehicles was achievable.
According to Oluwoye and Olaleye, it behoves on the Governor Jide Sanwoo-Olu-led government to study Lagos transportation patterns, trends and habits with a view to gathering data about trip generation and distribution.
“This data,” according to the experts, “will help bring the Lagos Masterplan to life and accelerate the race to make Lagos a smart city.”
The statement added, “Governor Sanwo-Olu’s tweet shows that the state had concluded preliminary studies to determine the distance covered by BRT buses and compare it against the distance covered by the new electric buses.
“It is imperative for the government to focus on areas that are underserved, highly transport dependent as well as places that are economically disadvantaged. Residents of these areas need these services to function the most. Doing this will help check the chaos on many Lagos roads.”
“Ever since Lagos signed on as the only city among the 41 organisations in Nigeria that are part of the ‘Race to Zero’ campaign, environmental experts have been on the watch to see whether Lagos will be able to pull off the elimination of greenhouse gases or whether it will be all rhetoric.”
