Why Lagosians prefer crossing busy highways to using foot bridges

Lagos, Nigeria: Why will Lagosians rather cross the busy highway than use the pedestrian bridge?


There are a number of reasons for this.

1) Impatience: Sometimes climbing the footbridge means walking back a little distance. Most people simply see this as a greater inconvenience than getting hit by a speeding truck.

2)Fear of heights.

3)Lack of trust in the structure of the bridge: Some of those bridges look like death traps, eg the bridges on Herbert Macauley way. You actually cannot blame people for being afraid of falling 10 feet into onrushing traffic.

4) "L'effet Mouton": Also known as the herd mentality. It takes a lot of mental courage to use a bridge when 30 other people are trying to cross the same road without it. There is the slight pull of "do I think I am smarter than them" that occurs when one decides to do things differently.

5) Insecurity on the bridges: Most of the bigger pedestrian bridges are home to vagrants and all sorts of people and can be especially scary at night or during the rush hour.

6) Poor Orientation/ illiteracy/ Pseudo-literacy

There are other reasons. I think a good solution to this problem would be a good sensitization program that takes people's legitimate and crazy seeming fears into cognizance.

Also some of these issues like insecurity and rickety bridges should also be tackled to ensure a good user experience on the bridge. This could be the best form of orientation as a user with a good experience on the bridge can become the best advocate for it.



Source: https://www.quora.com/Lagos-Nigeria-...he-foot-bridge


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