Spent a lot of hours on the roads in 2019 and I sure as hell couldn’t let all that time stuck in Uber and on Lagos roads go to waste. So here’s a compilation of what I made of the sights and sounds of the roads of Lagos, in 2019. Going into 2020 with even more insane level of curiosity.
Traffic Doodles (The Motion Picture) →
Capturing my Traffic experiences with doodles started with illustrating a number of stills on my mobile phone, just a little over a month ago. It just only made sense to keep pushing, so that my 4 hours (daily) invested in commuting to and from work on the roads of Lagos, could even better utilised. So I got to learning how to animate any illustration made on my mobile phone while stuck in traffic, and everything below was borne out of my non-stop trial and errors.
Read MoreTraffic Doodles
On a daily basis, I spend about 4 hours cumulatively commuting to and from work. Since I am stuck in Lagos traffic everyday, I'm constantly in search of new creative ways to spend my time. A large number of passengers are always glued to the screen of mobile phones, as I usually am, so I started using my travel time to sort of draw, based on everything experienced on Lagos Roads. Using the arrangement of basic shapes I tell the story of what I read,saw or heard while on my way, and I call them TRAFFIC DOODLES. I share them via twitter, and instagram daily.I have also compiled a number of them here for your viewing pleasure. You can follow @trafficdoodles on Instagram to stay updated.
Hustle
The beauty of riding in a Lagos yellow bus can sometimes be breathtaking: from the excessive lapping that happens, to the charitable passengers offering to pay your transport fare ( that's a scare and a tale for another day).
The experience just never seizes to amaze me-the headroom some of these buses offer cannot even be rivaled by some Boeing flight birds. The wary look of hustle plastered on all the faces within the bus is always quite a delight. The clash of colognes and sweat might want to choke you, but if you prepared yourself for it all,All you will do is smile.
Smile at all the dreams housed within the moving death-trap. The driver will stop so many times trying to correct the sparks flying from his battery terminal. The conductor will suffer partial hearing loss when you ask him about your change( balance) and then the bus tyre will go FLAT,confirming your much dreaded thought. You get delayed for eternity in the middle of the road, while he attempts to fix a spare tyre. The spare tyre finally gets fixed at which point your ears are already ringing with the blares of car horns, you sigh deeply thinking finally you are on your way home...Then the Death-Trap's battery refuses to start ....Tayuuun...yuuuun....yuuuuun!
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Pipty Naira
Last night was really a rude awakening of the society around me. Thanks to the Buhari economy,I had to do a lot of Public transportation (a delight whenever it happens). So I flagged down this tricycle (Keke Marwa) at the dead of the night and announced my destination, he motions me in and starts to move like he belongs in the world of Need For Speed.
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