Most of Africa’s population will continue to grow rapidly this century. “If anything, Lagos’s population is probably higher than anyone gives it credit for,” she said.Ī study published last year in the Lancet forecasts that Nigeria will become more populous than China by the end of the century, as birthrates rapidly shrink in some parts of the world - East Asia, eastern and southern Europe, the Caribbean - and level off in others, such as the United States, which is projected to have a similar population in 2100 as now. A huge proportion of the city’s residents are itinerant laborers who sleep in different locations from week to week, making census questions about household size irrelevant. She explained that most Nigerians go to ancestral villages for census counts, even though they live in Lagos most of the time. “There’s no exact science” for determining the city’s population, said Taibat Lawanson, a professor of urban planning at the University of Lagos. I am tired of this city,” the 39-year-old says. My brain is tired, my hands are tired, my soul is tired. He kicks the Transporter back into gear and focuses on the tasks at hand: maneuver wisely, don’t dent someone, conserve fuel. “Because what good is a road if all you do is fight every day for an inch of space on it?” “Maybe the government has tried to improve traffic, but we can’t see it,” Surajuddin says.
#20 most populous us cities driver#
Riders try to resolve a dispute between a traffic official and a bus driver on the Lekki-Epe Expressway in Lagos.
#20 most populous us cities drivers#
On the trip between Ajah - a newly developing suburb on the eastern edge of Lagos - and downtown, he said, he usually witnesses half a dozen fights between drivers unbottling their tempers after hours stuck in place. Surajuddin’s daily route down one of Lagos’s most severely clogged arteries reveals the city’s dangerously high blood pressure.
The horror stories aren’t of bad jams they’re of the times the “go-slow” became a “no-go” and everyone just left their cars in the road, figuring they would fetch them once the day’s obstructions - a flooded patch of road, a broken-down truck - were cleared. That’s why the small talk in this city isn’t about weather.
Many doubt even its simplest promises, such as the impending inauguration of a single subway line that was supposed to open a decade ago. Lagos will balloon to 30 million, then 50 million, maybe even 100 million people, and meanwhile the government will keep unveiling new visions for the city that never come to fruition. The traffic is a manifestation of what Lagosians fear most for their city: There is no plan. “This is every day,” one says, when a reporter turns around and looks at her with a sympathetic face.
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