Assessment of the Quality of Urban Transport Services in Nigeria

ABSTRACT Transport services are inadequate in quality and qualitative terms in most developing countries such as Nigeria which, relies on the importation of fairly used vehicles to meet the travel demands. The poor service delivery of transport system had created impediment towards the smooth movement of people, goods and services in some of urban centres in Nigeria. This study is designed to investigate the quality of transport services in Ibadan metropolis. The study area covered the eleven local government areas that make up Ibadan metropolis. Stratified sampling technique was used to select two political wards from each of the local government areas identified in the city. The twenty two political wards sampled were re-grouped into three geographical areas based on land use characteristics and population density. These are high, medium and low density. In each of the three geographical areas identified in the city, a systematic random sampling procedure was employed to select one in every twenty buildings along the major streets. In each of the buildings sampled, only one household is randomly selected for interview. An average of one hundred copies of the questionnaire was administered in each of the density area. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that some of the urban residents who are less accessible to transport services in their neighborhood commute on foot to meet their travel demands. Many of the urban residents expressed their dissatisfaction with the transport services available in the city. Further analysis showed that household’s income is highly correlated with modal choice in the city. The result of the analysis further revealed that some of the intra-transport services are poorly maintained. The study concluded that there is need to revitalize the transport services in urban centres in Nigeria so as to improve the accessibility characteristics of urban residents and promote sustainable transport development.
Key Word: Urban, Households, Transport Services, And Plannig.
INTRODUCTION Urban transport services in Nigeria is inadequate both in quality and quantitative terms considering the rate of population growth and the economic condition of an average Nigerian on the affordability of transport services to meet his or her travel demands over the past four decades. The structural adjustment programme of the middle 80’s had made the importation of new automobile vehicles relatively expensive to purchase for urban mobility in the country. Similarly, the price of motor spare parts had risen astronomically and many Nigerians could hardly maintain their old vehicles which invariably compounded the mobility crises in Nigerian towns and cities. Incidentally most of urban trips in Nigeria are made by road, rail and water based mode and these accounted for about 95%, and the remaining 5% were mainly by walking (Oyesiku ,2001). It is pertinent to note that of all the trips made by vehicles, 70% were by public transport, which is dominated by private sector operators. According to Oyesiku (2002), more than 95% of all urban public transport journeys in Nigeria were provided by private operators using mainly taxis and paratransit buses. It is interesting to note that many of the urban residents are less accessible to these transport services. Besides, the service delivery of public transport operators is less satisfactory to the urban commuters in Nigeria. Most of the research works carried out on the mode of operation of public transport services in Nigeria do not consider the quality of transport services in relation to comfort, affordability, safety and income level, which are all of paramount importance to mobility pattern of urban residents in any country of the world. The focus of this research therefore is to assess the quality of transport services in Ibadan metropolis with the view to improving the mobility characteristics of urban residents and promoting sustainable transport development in the study areas and many other cities in Nigeria.