In 2024, Funmi packed up from Lagos, Nigeria with her kids to join her husband in Omaha, Nebraska, one of the US’s more family-friendly towns. As a family woman, one of the first things to tick off her list was getting a driver’s licence, however, she was met with a rude awakening: her 2-decade + driving experience on Nigeria’s rugged roads simply didn’t cut it. Funmi quickly learnt that mobility in Omaha comes with its own rules, the greatest of all being kindness—something her Lagosian self took quite a while to get used to. With wide roads, long distances, and a public transit system that can’t keep up with the city’s sprawl, driving isn’t just helpful here but essential.
Describe your first driving experience.
My first driving experience happened when I was about 16 or 17 years old, and it was with a Benz. It was my friend’s mom’s car and my friend was teaching me with it in Bodija, Ibadan.
And what was your first driving experience like in your current city?
My first experience driving here in Omaha was with a Ford Escape, an SUV. I would say that here, the best option to get around is owning a vehicle. The public transit system isn’t very reliable or sufficient. Also because it’s a low population city but with enormous geographic space—a population of 485,000 and a land area of 369.51 km2. So you just need a car to get around the city to get things done. I think if you’re a student, you could manage without a car though, because you might not need to get on the road a lot.
What are some things you look out for when buying a car?
I think the first thing I look out for is fuel efficiency. The second thing I look out for is clearance and it probably stems from my experience driving in Nigeria, where roads are bad so we just prefer SUVs. So till now, I tend to just want to go for SUVs or cars with higher clearance.
Also, I find it easier to drive SUVs ’cause I feel like I can see the road better than when I’m in a car which is closer to the ground.
I’m considering getting another car, but a saloon this time just so I have a second option to get myself around. I’ll most likely get a fairly used car with good fuel efficiency and decent mileage—I think it’s fine as long as it doesn’t cross 80,000.
How difficult was it for you to get all the requirements to drive in your current city?
It’s actually quite difficult. About two weeks after I got into the country, I had my first driver’s test even though I wasn’t prepared for it. I just went into the DMV office to try to get my licence, fill out the paperwork. And the next thing, they tell me to go to a room and go take a driving test.
I went in thinking I’ve been driving for over 20 years so I should definitely ace this test. But, I got there and was shocked by the most basic questions. Many of them looked strange to me. So I failed. Then they rescheduled my retake for 48 hours later. I took the time, went online on their website where they had a lot of practice questions. So I practised, practised, read the book and then went back.
This time around when I got there, the licencing officer that handled my case the first time was like, ‘oh, repeat offender!’ He just calmed me down, told me to relax and that the test is designed even for a 16 year old to be able to pass so I should not overthink it and I’m gonna do well. I said OK and then I went in, did the test and in 15 minutes I was done. The test questions were 25 and you need to score 20 out of the 25 to pass the test. I did well and the next thing was to schedule
a road driving test, which is where you have a licencing officer physically in the car with you to observe how you follow the rules of the road and how you drive. Before I could do that, I practiced around; I would drive three to five miles within my neighbourhood just to get myself ready for that experience.
How did that experience differ from your first time of getting a licence back home?
Honestly, in Naija, I don’t even remember doing a driving test. After my friend taught me how to drive as a teenager, the licence just seemed like a phone call away. I think I just filled out the form and they gave it to me. I don’t remember anyone really asking me questions before giving me the licence. Plus, it wasn’t until about 10 years ago that you had to physically appear in a driver’s licence office, when the Federal Government and Lagos State Government started improving data collection systems.
So, it was a very big shift for me in the US. I felt like at my big age and with all my driving experience, they should just let me go, but it didn’t matter to them. In Omaha, people from some specific countries like Germany and Canada could get away with not taking the written or practical test, though. You could just get your local licence. I think it depends on the state in the US. Different states have different rules and exceptions. Oh and here, they recently updated their licensing requirements such that international driver’s licences from Nigeria are no longer accepted.
Is it better to lease, rent or buy a car in your city?
I would say most people here buy their cars since it’s a city with a very high elderly population. So most people actually own assets, their homes, their vehicles. It’s easier for you to just rent a car if you’re travelling out of state, but if you live within the state, you most likely buy. There’s always a cheap deal on a car. Somebody’s always trying to sell off a car and it’s very easy for you to get financing options, so it makes it very easy for people to actually own a car.
What’s one traffic rule in your city that you still haven’t gotten used to?
It’s those road markings where they put yellow lines and inside the yellow line is the dashed yellow line… just the road markings made with yellow in general that I still find confusing.
I still find flashing arrow light to the right or to the left on a four-way intersect confusing too, because the flashing light means if everywhere is clear, you can go right? Since the terrain of Omaha is quite hilly, sometimes you can be on top of the hill and you may never see the car coming in, but you see the flashing light.
And in your mind, especially for someone who’s new and who’s coming from a place like Lagos where there’s lots of craze on the road, I see a flashing light that you can go but you don’t trust it because what if another car suddenly comes?
Are there any parking challenges in Omaha?
Not really. There’s sufficient parking everywhere you go except for maybe the schools. And that’s just when you’re doing the drop off and pick up because most schools don’t have large parking lots. It’s particularly the private schools, as the public schools tend to have larger parking lots.
So dropping off kids can create spillover traffic in residential areas. Yes, but the rule is in 30 seconds to one minute, your child needs to be out of your car, so you don’t back up people onto the major roads. Parking is also an issue in schools because the high school kids drive to school. So you just have to follow the rules of drop off and drop the child and then come back later to have any discussion with school if you want to.
What’s the best part of driving in Omaha?
The roads are very wide because it’s mostly an agricultural state. This means the major roads, even within neighbourhoods, are wide enough to even allow trucks to move through if they have to. I find that very helpful. Also, the city is not crowded at all and it just makes for really easy driving, with virtually no traffic congestion. I can cover a 20-mile journey within say 15 minutes on a major road, just to show you how easy it is to get through. The worst it gets during rush hour is maybe an additional 10-15 minutes. Most drivers on the road are also sane.
I have one hour to drive in Omaha, where do I go?
Within one hour, you could probably go to about 3 different small towns on the outskirts of the major city. It’s very easy to get around places, so you can cover grounds in estates within a one-hour drive.
What’s the best place to drive at night?
Omaha isn’t a very metropolitan city. I’d say it’s more family-friendly so you won’t really find that much nightlife, except in some areas downtown. Most people are here raising kids, living a quiet lifestyle, many people own farms… Omaha is one of the commercial hubs and it’s mostly finance, insurance, then manufacturing companies and agricultural companies that own their front offices here. So there isn’t so much of night life, however, there are fantastic places around arts and culture—the museum, Doorly Zoo & Aquarium, which is I think one of the top five zoos globally. There are lots of historical centres too.
Tell us something interesting or unique about driving in Omaha
One is that fellow road users are actually very nice. People will actually stop to help you if you have a problem and others won’t mind that fixing the problem is causing a delay on the road. People are unusually kind on the road here. They also don’t honk unnecessarily like in Nigeria and no one is in a rush. Driving here reminds me of Ibadan, but even with lesser traffic and more niceness. Road rage isn’t something you really see here.
