Tricycle taxi drivers have expressed hope that the overpass being constructed in Customs junction, Maiduguri, will ease traffic congestion, but that additional measures are required to decongest other roads.
A taxi driver, Mustapha Modu, said the junction had the worst traffic congestion in the city, but hoped that the flyover would solve the problem.
He said, “Even though the project is not completed, there is free flow of traffic unlike in the past when commuters spent a lot of time stuck behind the wheels. I am sure when the construction work is delivered, before long we will have some celebrating to do.
“The Borno Express junction close to the Federal Secretariat is nearly always chocked and traffic is at its heaviest in the mornings and when schools close in the afternoon. There is the need to have another structure there to improve the traffic flow.
“Tricycle taxi drivers are always stressed out and the only way to reduce the anxiety is to address the problems as I suggested earlier. You cannot forecast your daily movement while the fuel consumption increases on congested roads.”
Another driver said the Post Office area was another location synonymous with traffic congestion.
He said, “Government has to adopt urban transport strategies to manage the traffic congestion in the Post Office area and the marketplace along Baga Road. A flyover or any other engineering design similar to it has to be erected over the intersection at Post Office while the illegal parking on Baga Road Road which causes traffic congestion must be resolved.”
He further said apart from traffic jam, potholes on Baga Road and bypass create problems to motorists and therefore called on the authorities to fix them.
