The naked road

Dr Terry Mene served as the World Bank project consultant to the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC). An astute man that usually says it as it is, he once made a statement that resonated with me during a discussion on the state of Nigerian roads. He said: “Nigerian roads are naked.”
Former chief executive of FRSC, Osita Chidoka, in a sense, amplified this when he said: “No one builds a house and moves in without furnishing. A road is not a road without the appropriate furniture.” The two statements set the pace for this piece.
Let state that the second pillar of the UN Decade of Action spells out the need to improve the safety of road networks for the benefit of all road users, especially the most vulnerable: pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Despite the current efforts of the Nigerian government, what do you think of road signage on Nigerian roads? Inadequate? Bastardized by hawkers and villagers? Do you know that a good number of Nigerians who drive are ignorant of road signs? What do you think about transportation safety generally? Well, reflect on America’s assessment of safety and transportation in Nigeria: poor urban road conditions/maintenance; poor rural road conditions/maintenance: poor availability of roadside assistance; poor roads are generally in poor condition, causing damage to vehicles and contributing to hazardous traffic conditions. There are few traffic conditions. There are few traffic lights or stop signs.
It is against this backdrop and the need to buy into the Corps’ strategies for safer roads that this piece will focus on road signage. It is common for us to lament over the state of our roads and the inadequacy of road furniture. Strictly speaking, how many of us truly comply with the ‘inadequate’ signs that we have? As a Christian, the bible says that he who is faithful in little will be faithful in much. What moral justification do we have to complain about inadequate signs when we rarely obey the few we have?
A brief history of emergency road signs will be helpful in appreciating its importance. The earliest road signs were milestones, giving distance or directions. For example, the Romans erected stone columns throughout their empire, giving the distance to Rome. In the middle ages, multi-directional signs at intersections became common, giving directions to cities and towns.
Traffic signs became more important with the development of automobiles. The basic patterns of most traffic signs were set at the 1908 International Road Congress in Rome. Since then, there has been considerable change. Today, they are almost all metal rather than wood and are coated with reflective sheeting of various types for nighttime and for low light visibility. Road marking was introduced into the United Kingdom in the 1920’s. The United Nations harmonized and introduced international traffic signs after the Second World War. That is why from Johannesburg in Africa to London in Europe, including the United States of America, their signs all look alike.
In 1995, the United Kingdom had 2,500,000 signs and signals, 850,000 road markings and 700,000 road studs within roads in England alone. In Nigeria, adequate records of signs are yet to be derived but available records of clustered billboards, which have little possible effect on highway safety, are about 50,000 from 109 registered outdoor advertising companies.
Road signs are highway pictures provided to assist pedestrians and road users in the safe usage of the highway. They are basically placed at the roadside to give information to road users on traffic regulations, special hazards and other road conditions. You should not only be familiar with the individual signs, you should recognize the special shapes and colours because the signs are classified and coded according to functions and retro-reflectivity.