In Abuja, many people travel by car. Residents drive themselves or have a driver take them from place to place. These drivers are sometimes privately hired or public, providing taxi services or rideshare experiences like Uber. Often, these taxis park on the sides of roads, holding up traffic! Even so, people have no other choice! They need to use cars to get to their destination. This is because Abuja is not a walkable city. There are few sidewalks and policies in place to protect pedestrians. In fact, I do not think I have seen a single crosswalk since living here! That said, walking is still a common mode of transportation.
When I first arrived, I was shocked to see all types of people running across the freeway, jumping over the median and narrowly escaping being hit by a car, all in an effort to reach the otherside. More surprising was that most cars made no attempts to slow down – not even for the children! I had asked my cousin why there was not a bridge for people to cross the freeway. He told me there was, but people chose not to use it. At first, I was puzzled. Why not use the bridge? However, after living here for sometime, I started to understand that there are other factors that encourage walkability, beyond infrastructure.
