CONTRIBUTION OF COMMERCIAL VEHICLES TO TRAFFIC CONGESTION IN CORE AREA OF IBADAN, NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper discusses the contribution of commercial vehicles to traffic congestion in the core of Ibadan, Nigeria. Commercial vehicles in the form of mini-buses, taxis, motorcycles and trucks plying the routes were manually counted between the hours of 7:00am and 7:00pm for a period of one week and their figures were volumetrically documented in passenger car unit (pcu). Traffic delays were observed and noted for their causes, duration and type of the vehicle involved for a week.

The result of the analysis showed the volume of commercial vehicle to be 73901 pcu and 15612 pcu for non-commercial vehicles. The result further revealed that a total of 6639 delays amounting to 49 hours of delay time was recorded at the node. It was also evident that the higher the volume of commercial vehicle traffic the more the delay on the roads studied. The study concluded that commercial vehicles contribute more to traffic congestion than non-commercial vehicles in the study area. The study recommends the introduction of high occupancy buses, provision of adequate bus-stops and installation of functioning traffic light among others to reduce traffic congestion on roads at Beere node in Ibadan