The Impact of Population on Road Transportation in Port Harcourt
Chapter One
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The objectives of the study are;
- To examine the effects of population on transportation in Port Harcourt
- To examine the causes and consequent effects of rapid population in the area.
- To examine the major problems of road transport in Port Harcourt
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Road Network Pattern and Analysis
Road network consists of large number of interwoven roads exhibiting many patterns ranging from star-like to grid-like with irregular patterns becoming recognized (Zang and Lund University, 2004). It consists of large amounts of roads that interweave with each other to exhibit a pattern. Patterns are defined as characteristics and properties found in repeated and regular manner within one object, or between a number of objects with such repetition in the form of shape, density, distribution, linkages, connection or orientation. These occur among the same kind of objects or different kinds of objects or within an object, or between objects repeated with sufficient regularity. Such repeated properties may be shape, orientation, connectedness, density or distribution. The frequency of such patterns enables development of prototypical views of geographical processes (Mackaness and Edwards, 2002). The route network is a set of nodes representing spatial locations and displays topological and geometric variations, while topology itself refers to the arrangement and connectivity of nodes and links of a network (Wyatt, 1997). The route network consists of primary and secondary roads known as arterial and minor roads respectively. Arterial roads are moderate or high-capacity roads that are below highway level of service, carrying large volumes of traffic between areas in urban centres and designed for traffic between neighbourhoods. They have intersections with collector and local streets, and commercial areas such as shopping centres, petrol stations and other businesses are located along such roads. In addition, arterial roads link up to expressways and freeways with inter-changes (Wikipedia contributors, 2008). According to Aderamo (2003), road network constitutes an important element in urban development as roads provide accessibility required by different land uses and the proper functioning of such urban areas depends on efficient transport network, which is a backbone to their very existence. The analysis of the road network involves the recognition of the patterns and qualities of the roads. Zacks and Tversky (2001) examined the idea of events as objects and argued that patterns themselves are objects bounded in space, organized hierarchically, and recognizable by a set of distinctive qualities. The qualities can be emphasized through the process of abstraction and symbolization, by which pattern is viewed as complexes of primitive objects and relationship between the primitives. This gives the shape, extent, orientation, density, topology and configuration as their intrinsic properties. Topology, according to Xie and Levinson (2006), is an arrangement and connectivity of nodes and links of measuring the spatial structure while configuration refers to collection of objects that comprise the pattern of road networks. In computing density, the network indicator approach was used to partition road network into different parts in reasonable way before the roads inside each part were extracted and the density calculated using indirectly related parameters. This results in number of connections to describe density differences in road networks. The parameter records how many roads connect to each road in a network. For two roads with the same length, the ones in the dense area will connect to more roads than that in a sparse area, and the connection differences will indicate the density differences to some extent; this is by number of connections to show the differences in density among a network (Zhang, 2004). According to Inforain online (2008), road density can also be calculated as the total length of all known roads divided by the total land area in a road network. Many techniques had earliier been used in analyzing road network patterns (Mackaness and Beard, 1993; Mackaness, 1995; Thomson and Richardson, 1995; Mackaness and Edwards, 2002; Jiang and Claramunt, 2004; and, Jiang and Harrie, 2004) namely, connectivity, shortest path spanning tree, and minimum cost spanning tree from graph theory to facilitate structural analysis and road selection in the road networks. Another approach based on perceptual grouping was equally used to group road segments according to continuation principle by ordering and selecting strokes into which the roads are segmented (Thomson and Richardson, 1995).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study effect of population on road transportation in port harcourt
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information on effect of population on road transportation in port harcourt. 100 drivers and 100 passengers in some selected parks in Rivers state was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain effect of population on road transportation in port harcourt
In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of population on road transportation in port harcourt
Summary
This study was on effect of population on road transportation in port harcourt. Three objectives were raised which included:To examine the effects of population on transportation in port harcourt, to examine the causes and consequent effects of rapid population in the area, to examine the major problems of road transport in port harcourt. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 100 drivers and 100 passengers. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made up drivers, conductors, male passengers and female passengers were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
The complexities of urban transport cannot be resolved without a concise and cogent policy. Urban areas, whether mega-cities, cities or towns, have grown and are growing. The demands they are making have remained largely unmet. The deteriorating quality of public transport is driving people to personalized transport, most of which are fuel-inefficient, congesting and unsafe. While it is not the intention of this paper to make a case against large capital intensive metro systems, the realities demand solutions which are within reach. Buses as a mode of public transport, have a potential which is yet to be fully exploited. Given the priority that they deserve, buses can ensure safety, act against pollution and promote mobility for the poor and the not so poor
Recommendation
In order to reduce the traffic congestion effects of private motorizations, there is the need to develop and invest on rail and bus mass transit on major and high trafficked corridor. Such corridors that command high traffic and connect residential places to commercial and industrial centres are Aba road, Ikwerre road, Trans-Amadi road and East/West road. These roads would require mass transit implementation to reduce private motorization. Other means of public transport could be re-organized on other roads to serve as feeder to the major traffic corridors
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