MY TIP FOR AVOIDING GETTING STUCK IN LAGOS TRAFFIC (USING YOUR GOOGLE MAPS IN LAGOS)

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I've lived in Lagos most of my life but I'm not sure I would ever get used to the craziness of this city. Here's a note a few years old from my private journal: 
 
If I am to offer some explanation for my mood, I would say today I had gone through all kinds of emotions and stress before eventually getting to work.

And I am already scared of the traffic going home and it's not even noon. When did Lagos become this sort of crazy city? It has surely never been this tedious. "May Lagos be good to you" is a valid prayer.

What's surprising these years later is that I still feel the same way about driving in Lagos. Obviously, the best tip for avoiding traffic is to stay at home. But that's not always practical for most of us who work outside the home.  So, besides setting off for work at the wee hours of the day (which I don't do because I like my sleep) and waiting out the traffic in the evenings, I have been able to reduce the time I spend in traffic by driving with google maps

Sounds easy, but trust me, if you follow Google maps blindly in Lagos, you will enter "one chance". 

To get the most out of your Google maps experience, you must know about the roads that lead to your destination.   
1. I typically avoid routes with a lot of heavy-duty vehicles. For example, Mile 2, Apapa, Orile, Costain, Ijora because a big truck can block road access at any time and you can be stuck in traffic for many hours even though your map had previously noted that your arrival time was in 15 minutes. 

2. I avoid areas with bad roads or narrow streets even if the travel time is shorter. For the same reason, I avoid roads common for petrol tankers. You can get stuck for longer if anything happens. Similarly, avoid areas with road construction work going on because the traffic time on any route with construction work is hardly accurate. 

3. I use a lot of inner street travel but I also avoid popular narrow streets as I previously stated. 

4. I usually set my destination to "intersection points". That is a point from which I can take several routes to my actual destination (especially inner streets).  I have observed that if you pick a very long destination, the map might not give you all the options (or the actual best option)  for routing to your destination, especially when there is traffic on every route. 

I hope this helps. Cheers. 




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