One of the stereotypical complaints about life in the UK
recently has been the over-enthusiastic use of traffic cones to cordon off
miles and miles of road with no work actually taking place. In Nigeria yesterday, I experienced the
inverse of this – a contraflow system with no cones, no road-signs, and no
controls.
The main road from Bukuru to Jos is a dual carriageway, but
with no barrier – just a grass strip as a central reservation. Accordingly, when the workmen started repairs
across the whole width of one section of the northbound carriageway, drivers
were invited to make their own arrangements.
This was achieved by crossing the grass boundary and driving the wrong
way down the “fast” southbound lane, on the assumption that the southbound
traffic would understand what was going on, and leave that lane clear.
It all seemed to work fairly well, although matters were
complicated by a fuel truck which had tried to cross at a point where the
central reservation was substantially lower than the tarmac, and had got stuck
at a crazy angle. The other traffic
therefore had to negotiate round a recovery vehicle which was being used to
winch the fuel truck back on to the road.
The whole experience was fairly symptomatic of driving in
Nigeria. It seems to be crazy and
chaotic, but it works!
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