UberBOAT launches in Lagos in partnership with Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA). Users will be charged a flat amount of N500 ($1.39) per trip. This is encouraging but it needs scale to have an impact.
One of the most exciting things in Zurich, Switzerland, is entering a public bus, in some areas, with no requirement to pay any fee. Come out from the central station, enter a bus, and go anywhere you want. The government has figured out that by waiving the fees, more people will use the public buses, triggering more productivity via no traffic on the roads, and good things follow. At the end, it will recover all expenses from better tax receipts.
Sure – one cannot compare Nigeria and Switzerland but getting people to drive less and use public transportation systems which must be adequately provided should be a game plan. Waterways, trains and more buses, priced competitively, would save Lagos from itself. As that happens, Lagos needs neighboring states to disperse its traffic under a better tax structure as I have noted.
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Global ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] on Friday launched a pilot test of a boat service in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos to attract commuters seeking to avoid the megacity’s notoriously congested roads.
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The waterway service, UberBOAT, is operated in partnership with local boat operator Texas Connection Ferries and the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA), said the ride-hailing firm.
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Passengers will be charged a flat fare of 500 naira ($1.39) per trip, compared with about 300 naira by minibus for a similar journey in the commercial hub of the West African country where most people live on less than $2 a day.
Recently, Gokada, a motorbike e-hailing operator, went into the space with GBoat.
Gokada launches GBoat, a boat service in Lagos: “After raising USD 5.3 million from the Rise Capital, bike-hailing firm GoKada is launching a water-borne service, GBoat, to beat Lagos traffic”. Meanwhile Uber unveils Uber Copter in New York. Yes, you can take a helicopter from Manhattan heliport to JFK Airport for $200. Two poles – interesting moments in global transportation.
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“As that happens, Lagos needs neighboring states to disperse its traffic under a better tax structure as I have noted.” The only problem here is that if they reintroduce toll gates, the people living outside Lagos but work there could find themselves on the backfoot; policy consistency matters a lot.
As for UberBoat and making use of the waterways, since most people don’t live along the coastal lines, if you have large number of people waiting to make use of boats, you will still create another suffocating traffic jam, just to enter a boat.
Our biggest crime as a country was/is that we never planned for the sort of population we have in the cities, without a proper redesign, all these palliative measures can only work for few years, and then we come back to square one. We are expecting another 200 million Nigerians in less 50 years from now, so brace up!
Good point on the toll gate issue. But that can be managed if regular crossers buy say annual discounted rates. But Lagos cannot help itself.
Hmmm…”a proper redesign”. Haven’t heard that before with regard to the solution to Lagos state’s traffic woes. I wonder how that would work. Could you please give a bit more detail of what this would be and how it would be implemented Sir?
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I wasn’t referring to the tax policy you proposed Sir. I was referring to the ‘proper redesign’ Mr Francis mentioned above. I imagined he was referring to something of a design of a new urban city master plan for Lagos taking into account the projected population increase over the next 50 years as mentioned.
I see – you are correct. My apologies.