Effect of Population on Road Transportation in Benin City
Chapter One
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The objectives of this study are as follows;
- To identify why people in Benin City move from one place to another.
- To find out the pattern of movement of the people
- To examine the effect of population on road transportation, Uselu Lagos Road is taken as a case study and
- To suggest possible ways of ameliorating these effect on road transportation.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
ARE THE ROAD WARE BUILT
Road were built far much the same reasons as railways and they can be said that roads and railways are complementary to each other since they help in conveying good directly from coast to coast. It can also be seen that roads are in direct competition with the railway system.
TRAFFIC CONGESTION AND PARKING DIFFICULTIES
Congestion is one of the most prevalent transport problems in large urban agglomerations, usually above a threshold of about 1 million inhabitants. It is particularly linked with motorization and diffusion of the automobile, which has increased the demand for transport infrastructure. However, the supply of infrastructure has often not been able to keep up with the growth of the time parked, motorization has expanded the demand for parking space, which has created space consumption problems particular in central areas, the spatial imprint of parked vehicles is significant.
LONG COMMUTING
On par with congestion people are spending an increasing amount of time commuting between their residence and workplace. An important factor behind this trend is related to residential affordability as housing located further away from central areas (where most of the employment remains) is more affordable.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT INADEQUACY
Many public transit systems, or parts of them, are either over or under used during peak hours, crowdedness creates discomfort for users as the system copes with a temporary surge in demand. Inspite of significant subsidies and cross financing (e.g. tolls) almost every public transit systems cannot generate sufficient income to cover its operating and capital sufficient income to cover its operating and capital costs. While in the past deficits were deemed acceptable because of the essential services public transits was providing for urban mobility its financial burden is increasingly controversial.
LOSS OF PUBLIC SPACE
The majority of wads is publicly owned and free to access. Increased traffic has adverse impacts on public activities which once crowded the streets such as markets agoras, parades and processions, games, and community, interactions. These have gradually dispensed to be replaced by automobiles., in any cases, these activities have shifted to shopping malls while in other cases, they have been abandons altogether traffic flows influence the life and interaction of resident and their usage of street space. More traffic impedes social interactions and street activities. People tend to walk and cycle less when traffic in high.
ACCIDENTS AND SAFETY
Growing traffic in urban areas is linked with a growing number of accident and fatalities especially in developing countries. Accidents account for a significant share of recurring delays. As traffic increases people feel less safe to use the street,
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, attention is given to the description of the population, research instrument, method of data collection and method of data analysis.
POPULATION
The population of this study comprises of motorist (passengers) on Uselu Ugbowo Lagos Road in Egor Local Government Area in Benin City.
SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUES
The sample of this study comprises of motorist of commercial buses on Uselu Ugbowo Lagos in Benin City. This road is selected through simple random sampling i.e. one major road in Egor Local Government Area. Uselu Ugbowo Lagos road and this coin will be focused and selection will be made. The Uselu Ugbowo-Lagos road picked will be used for this study. Questionnaires will be distributed to the commuters on hand within a period of about five hours. A research assistant will be used.
CHAPTER FOUR
ANALYSIS OF DATA
This chapter deals with the analysis of data collected from commuters on the Uselu-Lagos road in Egor Local Government Area, Benin City. In the analysis there was no direct reference made to any particular individual,. The data are analyzed according to how commuters responded to the questionnaires that was distributed to them along Uselu-Lagos road.
Hypothesis 1: does the variation in the pattern of movement of people have effect on road transportation?
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
This chapter considered the summary of the study also considered the conclusion and recommendation.
This study carried out on the effect of population of road transportation in Egor Local Government Area. Four hypothesis were put forward for the study and the four were tested. A particular road (Uselu Lagos Road) was focused upon the study. The method of data gathering was the use of questionnaires from commuters on the sampled road. The data were analyzed using simple percentage. From the data gathered and analyzed the percentage. The following findings were made;
- That the movement of people is from one place to another. This shoiws that in order to buy commodities and communicate effectively with one another, people must leave their house apart from going to place of work, buying of commodities and communication, there were other forms of movement required the use of buses and taxes.
- That there is rushing in the movement of people in the warning because everybody like to get to his or place of work in order to avoid being late to office or to keep appointment, because of this bus and taxi drivers deliberately increase transport fares to make more profit as a result of the large number of commuter awaiting buses and taxis.
- That the high concentration of vehicles on this road due to population density may therefore be expected to lead to congestion and traffic.
- That the development of potholes is a common features caused by the large number of vehicles plying this road and the quantity of goods they convey. From this, the development of potholes on this road might continue within increase in the number of vehicles.
- That transport facilities are inadequate this is obviously shown by 78.2% of the respondents who said there were no adequate transport facilities in Benin City.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the findings of this research, the following recommendations were proposed;
- The government (local, state and federal) should assist I the provision of urban mass transit buses to support the available few buses and taxis for the movement of people in Benin City especially during the morning rushing hours. This could also solve the problem of indiscriminate increase of transport fares by buses and taxis driver as a result of large number of people awaiting them.
- The government should rehabilitate the old traffic light and install new ones at road junctions. This will promote the free flow of traffic and reduce concentration of vehicles that cause traffic congestion on this road.
- Roads should be built solid and well drained to resist the pressure of large number of vehicles capacity of heavy duty Lorries and trailers plying this road will also help to reduce the rate of occurrence and development of potholes on this road.
- Maintenance exercise should be carried out from time to time by the ministry of works and transport on these roads.
- Benin City should be dualised by the government to rduce the competition among road users along this road. This position of Benin City in the country makes it unavoidable a centre of vehicles moving from one part of the country to another. The federal government should construct urban bye-pass and glyover so that many of the vehicles moving from West to East or from East to West will not pass through Benin City to avoid wastage of mans hours.
Finally, to alleviate the suffering of the masses as regards transportation, effects should be made by the three levels of government in making road transport facilities adequate.
REFERENCES
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- Federal Ministry of Information and Culture (1996). Budget of consolidation, Lagos, Production Department.
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- Iboaya, B. A. (1991). Comprehensive certificate geography. Benin City Banking Intellectual Publishers.
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