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Passing Through Life
with a man who offers lifts to strangers
In the city of Lagos where there is no commuter route planning, and public transport is a nightmare, owning a car is a necessity and I am grateful I have one.
Most times as I travel from home to work, or my many other destinations across the city, I am the only person riding in the air-conditioned comfort of my car. Outside, there are hordes of other people standing by the roadside waiting for buses, or walking along dusty routes in the scorching sun to connect blind spots within the city where there is no commuter option.
For visitors to the city of Lagos, it might sound like an exaggeration that there are parts of this chaotic city (mostly highbrow locations) where no one cares about how a commuter will get from point A to B. However, this isn’t an exaggeration.
Within central city locations, the default assumption is that everyone has a car. In these areas, daily commuting could be a headache. And unfortunately, this is the daily life of the many people that come from the suburbs of Lagos to find their luck in it’s highly polarized commercial centres accessible by road via 3 bridges to the west, and one 4-lane expressway to the east.
Given the average wages and expense burden on this middle-class who cannot afford to buy a car, UBER or…