Skip to main content

IBM advises Lagos on future transportation system to aid growth

A team of IBM experts completing a month-long pro bono consulting assignment has presented recommendations to Nigeria's Lagos State Government to ensure that private traffic and public transportation flows more efficiently in Africa's most populous city, Lagos. Working with the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority and the Lagos State Ministries of Transportation, Works and Infrastructure, Science and Technology, the IBM team of experts proposed technology-driven strategies to make travel easier.
June 17, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
A team of 62 IBM experts completing a month-long pro bono consulting assignment has presented recommendations to Nigeria's Lagos State Government to ensure that private traffic and public transportation flows more efficiently in Africa's most populous city, Lagos.

Working with the 7133 Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority and the Lagos State Ministries of Transportation, Works and Infrastructure, Science and Technology, the IBM team of experts proposed technology-driven strategies to make travel easier.

The recommendations included better coordination between agencies responsible for traffic management, police, fire and medical care to provide more accurate and up-to-date information to help transport management agencies better manage the city's traffic flow.

Also on the list of suggestions was a single, integrated e-ticketing system for all modes of transportation, similar to New York City's Metro Card or London's Oyster card system, and integrated fare management. The introduction of roadway toll rates based on traffic density was proposed to encourage the use of public transportation. The state was also advised to create a single platform for all its traffic and transportation-related data so each agency and mode of transport is integrated, helping passengers interconnect seamlessly.

Lagos State Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola said: "The need to deploy innovative approaches that address civic challenges in Lagos State has never been greater. Technology is the key to the future, and we welcome IBM's support in this regard."

The team's recommendations took advantage of existing infrastructure, and suggested ways that projects could be self-funded.

"IBM's set of recommendations address our key transportation challenges and clearly enhance our ongoing efforts to fix the myriad of issues faced by our fast developing state," said Kayode Opeifa, Lagos State commissioner for transport. Further confirming this point of view, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, Lagos state commissioner for works and infrastructure, said the state's "blueprint for transforming our struggling infrastructure into a modern ecosystem driven by data intelligence and efficient resource management has been further authenticated by these set of recommendations from IBM."

Related Content

  • November 15, 2012
    IBM and City of Lyon collaborate to create transport management centre of the future
    IBM researchers are piloting a system with the City of Lyon, France which will be used to help traffic operators in its transportation management centre to evaluate an incident and make more informed assessments about which actions would restore traffic flow. Using real-time traffic data, the new analytics and optimisation technology can help officials predict outcomes and analyse ways to resolve problems. The researchers say that, although traffic management centres have sophisticated video walls and colou
  • January 25, 2012
    Anywhere card delivers prepaid contactless ticketing
    David Crawford investigates a far reaching initiative in integrated travel. The Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO), an operator of high speed commuter rail in the north eastern US, is not one of the world's best known transit providers. Its 13 stations along a single east-west route (three of them interchanges with other regional commuter lines) handle 40,000 passengers a day, travelling to and from Philadelphia, the US' fifth most populous city.
  • January 30, 2012
    GIS mapping smoothes ITS operations and increases efficiencies
    Alexander Gerschenkron, the famous economic historian, once posited a benefit for those countries which come late to economic development: that they could introduce the latest technology and thus jump over some of the standard development paths followed by their predecessors . It is entirely possible to make the same observation of late-comers to ITS: that they can gain from the pains of those who went before and more easily implement best practice in ITS. As a consequence, it is entirely likely the Abu Dha
  • April 10, 2014
    Columbia goes intermodal to support sustainability
    David Crawford on the ups and downs of a Latin metropolis. Medellín, Colombia’s second city and a recognised leader in sustainable transport thinking, is rapidly extending its substantial existing investment in modern mobility. It is deploying both an enhanced integrated traffic management array and the country’s first intermodal public transportation management system. The supplier of both, under separate €9 million (US$12.3 million) contracts, is Spanish engineering company Indra, a major exporter