Prime Research on Education (PRE)

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ISSN: 2251-1253 Vol. 2(3), pp. 198-203, April 12 , 2012
www.primejournal.org/PRE

Review

Urban transportation problems and challenges in

Nigeria: A planners view
A. J. Aderamo
Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Ilorin, P.M.B. 1515, Ilorin. E-mail:
aderamoadekunle@yahoo.com
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Accepted 14 February, 2012

Urban transportation problems remain some of the most frequently discussed topics in urban geography yet
the problems seem to only get worse. The advantages of transportation cannot be overemphasized.
Transportation is the hub of the economy, it connects people and makes people and places accessible and
enhances social, economic and cultural interactions. However, large increases in urban population, pollution
and other negative externalities have seriously compromised existing transportation systems and significantly
increased the challenge of creating future transportation systems especially in developing countries. The paper
examines the problems of urban transportation systems in Nigeria with a view to recommending palliative
measure to reduce the problems. This has been done by looking at the structure and form of Nigerian cities and
the rapid, unplanned and uncoordinated growth of the cities. In addition, the environmental and social impacts
of these trends have been examined. These impacts include congestion, energy consumption, air pollution and
traffic accidents. Finally, the paper suggests strategies for addressing the urban transportation problems.
These include adopting a holistic approach to solving the transportation problems in the cities and using the
best techniques that have been tried and shown to be effective such as using cleaner fuels, retrofitting engines,
improving existing public transportation and enforcing stricter traffic rules. Further, approaches to solving
urban transportation problems must be city-specific and urban transportation planners must realize that
solutions designed for cities of developed countries cannot be applied to the urban areas in developing
countries

Keywords: transportation, systems, growth, countries, urban

INTRODUCTION

Urban transport problems remain one of the most
nagging problems in urban transportations today. All over
the world, attempts have been made to tackle the
problems, yet the situation seems to get worse. Cities are
centres of economic, social, cultural and intellectual
activities. These activities result in the drift of the
population from rural to urban centres and these
congregations have caused cities to expand without
control in many areas, causing congestion, environmental
and social problems.
Various approaches have been taken to combat urban
transport problems. In ancient Rome for example, Julius
Caesar once prohibited the movement of cars during day
light to relieve traffic congestion on roads (Bruton, 1975).
Congestion was also common place in seventeenth
century London and nineteenth century New York. In the
United States, various studies were carried out in cities
with traffic problems with the aim of reducing urban traffic
congestion problems. In 1973, the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development Report
discussed the widespread uses of Restraint of Road
traffic techniques in the developed countries as a means
of reducing heavy urban traffic problems (OECD, 1973).
In Nigeria, many scholars have also carried out studies
on urban transport problems all aimed at proffering
solutions. These include Adedamila (1977); Adenle
(1977); Olayemi (1977); Ogunsaya (1984, 1993);
Aderamo (1998). Many of these scholars who worked on
urban transport problems in Nigeria have identified
congestion as the most serious.
Cities are locations having a high level of
accommodation and concentration of economic activities
and are complex spatial structures that are supported by
transport systems (Rodrigue, 2009). The larger the city
the greater its complexity and the potential for disruptions
if this complexity is not effectively managed. The most
important urban transport problems take place when
transport systems for a variety of reasons cannot satisfy
the numerous requirements of urban mobility. Urban
productivity is highly dependent on the efficiency of its
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transport system to move labour, consumers and freight
between multiple origins and destinations. All these result
in congestion and environmental problems.
Among the most notable urban transport problems are
traffic congestion and parking difficulties; longer
commuting; public transport inadequacy; difficulties for
non-motorised transport, less of public space,
environmental impacts and energy consumption, accident
and safety, land consumption and freight distribution.
Also many dimensions of the urban transport problem are
linked with the dominance of the automobile.
The objective of this paper is to assess the urban
transportation problems and challenges in Nigeria with a
view to proffering palliative measures to reduce the
problems.
Urban land-use and transportation
Most conceptual frameworks on urban transportation
problems relate transportation to urban land use. Indeed,
transportation is regarded as the heart of urban land-use
function. The intimate relationship between transportation
and land-use is acknowledged by the fact that at the
heart of every citys master plan is a long-run
transportation network (Bland, 1982). The distribution of
land uses within a city varies greatly and determines the
transportation requirements. But in general, cities
consume about 3 percent of the total landmass at the
global level. Although, variation exists on the distribution
of land uses depending on the city, residential land-use is
the most common occupying between 65 75 percent of
the surface of a city. Commercial and industrial land uses
occupy 5 15 percent and 15 25 percent of the surface
respectively. Since each type of land-use has its own
specific mobility requirements, transportation is a factor of
activity location and is therefore associated intimately
with land use. Transportation and land-use interactions
mostly consider the retroactive relationships between
activities which are, land use-related and accessibility
which is transportation related. These relationships have
often been described as a classic chicken-and-egg
problem since it is difficult to identify the triggering cause
of change; do transportation changes precede land-use
changes or vice-versa?
The relationship between transportation and land-use are
rich in theoretical representations that have contributed
much to regional sciences. Several descriptive and
analytical models of urban land-use have been
developed over time with increased levels of complexity.
All involve some considerations of transport in the
explanations of urban land-use structures. Such theories
which include rent theory, central place theory, density
gradient studies and various descriptive models such as
the Von Thunens regional land-use model, the
concentric hypothesis (Burgess, 1925), the residential
sector model (Hoyt, 1939) and the multiple nuclei
description of the city (Harris and Ullman, 1945) which
attempt to describe land-use transportation relationship,
they are all primarily static models as they explain land-
use patterns, but they do not explicitly consider the
processes that are creating or changing them. Besides,
most of the conceptual approaches related to
transportation and land-use relationship have been
developed using empirical evidence related to North
America and Western Europe, this perspective does not
necessarily apply to other parts of the world.
However, Rodrigue (2009) has pointed out that both
land-use and transportation are part of a dynamic system
that is subject to external influences. Each component of
the system is constantly evolving due to changes in
technology, economics, demographics and even culture
or values. As a result, the interactions between land-use
and transportation are played out as the outcome of the
many decisions made by residents, businesses and
governments. Among the concepts supporting urban
dynamics representations are retroactions, whereby one
component changes influences others. The changes will
influence the initial component back, either positively or
negatively. The most significant components of urban
dynamics are:
(1) Land-use which is the most stable component of
urban dynamics as changes are likely to modify the land-
use structure over a rather long period of time. The main
impact of land-use on urban dynamics is its function of a
generation and attractor of movement.
(2) Transport network which is considered to be a
rather stable component of urban dynamics, as transport
infrastructures are built for the long term. The main
contribution of the transport network to urban dynamics is
the provision of accessibility. Changes in the transport
network will impact accessibility and movements.
(3) Movements this is the most dynamic component of
the system since movements of passengers or freight
reflect almost immediately, changes. Movements thus
tend more to be an outcome of urban dynamics than a
factor shaping them.
(4) Employment and workplaces these accounts for
significant inducement effects over urban dynamics since
many models often consider employment as an
exogenous factor. Commuting is a direct outcome of the
number of jobs and the location of workplaces.
(5) Population and housing they act as generators of
movements, because residential areas are the sources of
commuting.
The articulation of the relations remains the main issue,
particularly in the current context of interdependency
between local, regional and global processes.
Globalization has substantially blurred the relationships
between transportation and land-use as well as its
dynamics. These relationships however still remain as
the driving forces of urban development processes.
The recognition is that trip and location decisions co-
determine each other. Therefore transport and land-use
planning needs to be co-ordinated and has led to the
notion of the land-use transport feedback cycle. The set
relationships implied by this term can be briefly
summarized as follows (Figure 1):
- The distribution of land uses, such as residential,
industrial or commercial, over the urban area determines
the locations of human activities such as living, working,

Figure 1: The land-use transport feedback cycle
Source: Wegener and Frst (1999)
shopping, education or leisure.
- The distribution of human activities in space requires
spatial interactions or trips in the transport system to
overcome the distance between the locations of activities.
- The distribution of infrastructure in the transport system
creates opportunities for spatial interactions and can be
measured as accessibility.
- The distribution of accessibility in space co-determines
location decisions and so results in changes of the land-
use system.
Urban form and transportation
Urbanisation has been one factor contributing
significantly to urban transportation problems, especially
in the developing countries. Although urbanization is a
global phenomenon, 90% of the growth in urban
Aderamo 200
population occurs in developing countries which place
intense pressures on urban infrastructures, particularly
transportation to cope (Rodrigure, 2009). Since 1950, the
worlds urban population has more than doubled,
reaching 3.5 billion in 2010, about 50.6% of the global
population. This is the outcome of natural increase, rural-
urban migration and international migration.
Demographic and mobility growth have been shaped by
the capacity and requirements of urban transport
infrastructures such as roads, transit systems or
walkways, consequently there is a wide variety of urban
forms and associated urban transportation systems.
Historically, movements within cities tended to be
restricted to walking, which made medium and long
distance urban linkages rather inefficient and time
consuming. Thus activity modes tended to be
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agglomerated and urban forms compact. Cities built
recently because of their dispersed urban forms
encourage automobile dependency and are linked with
high levels of mobility. The evolution of transportation has
generally led to changes in urban form. The more radical
the change in transport technology, have been, the more
alteration on the urban form. Among the fundamental
changes in urban form is the emergence of new clusters
expressing new urban activities and new relationships
between elements of the urban system. In many cities,
the Central Business District (CBD), once the primary
destination of commuters and serviced by public
transportation, has been changed by new manufacturing,
retailing and management practices. In many cases,
manufacturing relocated in suburban setting, if not
altogether to entirely new low cost locations offshore.
Retail and office activities are also suburbanizing,
producing changes in the urban form. Concomitantly,
many important transport terminals, namely port facilities
and rail yards have emerged in suburban areas following
new requirements in modern freight distribution brought
in part by containerization. The urban spatial structure
shifted from a nodal to a multi-nodal character.
Highways and ring roads which aided and radiated from
cities favoured the development of suburbs and the
emergence of important sub-centres that compete with
the central business centre for the attraction of economic
activities. Sometimes, particularly when new modern
urban road infrastructures are built, the subsequent
changes in the urban form can be significant. Two
processes had a substantial impact on contemporary
urban forms. These are dispersed urban land
development patterns and the decentralization of
activities.
Transport technology plays a very important role in
defining urban form and the spatial pattern of various
activities.
Facing the expansion of urban areas are congestion
problems and the increasing importance of inter-urban
movements. Because the existing structures of urban
roads have become inadequate, several ring roads have
been built around major cities. The extension and the
over-extension of urban areas have created what may be
called peri-urban areas. They are located well outside the
urban core and the suburbs, but are reasonable
commuting distances; resulting in what is now called
edge cities, which has been used to label a cluster of
urban development taking place in suburban settings.
Urban transportation problems in Nigeria
Nigeria is one of the countries in the developing world
with rapid urbanization and fast growing cities. A study of
the changing morphology of many Nigerian cities gives
an insight into the evolution of urban transport problems
in Nigeria. Most of the scholars who have worked on
urban transport problems in Nigeria have identified
congestion as the most serious. Congestion occurs when
transport demand exceeds transport supply at a specific
point in time and in a specific section of the transport
systems. Under such circumstances each vehicle impairs
the mobility of others. It is now a common feature of most
urban centres of Nigeria and most especially Lagos,
Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Enugu and others which are
commercial and industrial nerve centres of the country,
having the most problems (Aderamo, 1998). The problem
of traffic congestion in cities of Nigeria has its roots partly
in the structural pattern of the roads especially in the
traditional area of cities and the unplanned growth and
haphazard land-use distribution.
Associated with the traffic congestions are problems of
parking. Parking demands far outweigh the available
supply in most Nigerian cities (Kombs, 1988). This results
in road-side parking and illegal parking, which are
common features in urban centres of Nigeria. The
ineffective regulation on parking has further worsened the
situation. Also, since vehicles spend the majority of the
time parked which has created land consumption
problems particularly in the Central Business Districts
(CBDs). Unfortunately, the more parking facilities
provided, the greater the demand for parking
(Ogunbodede, 2004) since there is continuous increase
in motorization.
Accidents frequently occur on roads in Nigerian urban
centres. Urban environments are the most prone to motor
traffic accidents because 75 per cent of traffic accidents
take place in built-up areas or cities (Aderamo, 2002).
This is due to the underlying factors of undue
concentration of vehicles in urban areas, traffic mix and
the resultant flow conflicts. Most of these accidents
happen due to the general impatience and ill-tempered
nature of road users and the conflict between pedestrians
and the different means of road transport in the cities
(Ogunsanya, 1993).
Environmental pollution and noise pollution have also
been identified as one of the urban transport problems in
Nigeria. This is as a result of discharge of effluents and
emission from automobiles. Pollution, including noise
generated by circulation is a serious impediment to the
quality of life and even health of urban population.
Further, energy consumption by urban transportation has
increased and so the dependency on petroleum. The
major pollutants include carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen
and hydro-carbons which are significant sources of eye
and respiratory diseases. The increasing number of old
and poorly maintained vehicles on Nigerian roads makes
the pollution effect to be more serious.
Land consumption is also a significant transportation
requirement especially for the automobile. In addition to
the transport routes, substantial requirements are also
needed for car parking and for terminals or interchanges.
Suggestions for solving urban transportation
problems
Many studies on urban transport problems have failed to
take into account, the multifaceted nature of urban
transport problems. For instance in some studies, a
particular facet of a wider range of problems is looked at
to the neglect of its relationship to other transport
problems. But urban transport problems are not best
solved piecemeal. Intimate and inseparable
interrelationships exist between transport and geographic
locations. Thus, any realistic solution to urban transport

problems must take into consideration the inter-
dependence between the form of a city and its transport
system.
Besides, urban transport problems, like other city
problems in developing countries require innovative
solutions Gauraw, Young and Khisty (1998) have
remarked that a more holistic approach would be very
essential in tackling the problems. They suggested three
policy strands involving practices, innovations and
sustainable development and emphasised that the three
strands could substantially reduce economic,
environmental and social costs of some of the negative
trends and impacts of urban transportation systems in
developing countries. In addition, they cautioned that
developing countries would be wise to learn from the
mistakes made in developed countries such as the
United States and to develop solutions specific to their
own needs as opposed to simply copying approaches
used by developed countries.
In Nigeria, a major cause of traffic problems is that the
city structure predates the advent of the automobile. The
structural pattern of the roads, especially in the traditional
areas of the city and the unplanned growth and
haphazard land-use distribution, impose serious
constraints on movement and the facilities provided
(Oduola, 1981). There is therefore the need for an
understanding of the structural pattern of an urban area
and the traffic carrying capability of the roads in order to
tackle its transportation problems.
In order to reduce urban transportation problems in
Nigerian cities, it suggested that sound traffic
management measures in addition to other remedial
measures to improve traffic circulation in the cities be
adopted. This can be achieved through an understanding
of the structure of the cities, their route forms and
transport needs. The following specific measures are also
suggested where they are relevant:
1. Drainage facilities should be provided where they are
inadequate. Inadequate drainage facilities result in
occasional flooding of roads during the rainy season. This
affects traffic flow and reduces road life span as a result
of development of pot-holes on the roads.
2. Provision of off-street parking facilities in designated
areas of our cities. Lack of off-street parking facilities
results in on-street parking which reduces the effective
width of roads leading to obstruction of traffic flow. Off-
street parking spaces should be provided especially
along those roads where there are concentrations of
activities.
3. Provision of traffic lights at major road junctions in the
cities because of large volumes of traffic especially at
peak periods. Other road junctions should be provided
with STOP signs at appropriate arms of the junctions.
Some other junctions should be manned by traffic
wardens appropriately. In addition, all roads in Nigerian
cities should be provided with road signs as non-
provision of road signs mislead motorists leading
occasionally to accidents.
4. Where there are large concentrations of pedestrians,
complete separation of vehicles should be encouraged to
Aderamo 202
reduce pedestrian-vehicular conflicts in the cities. This
could be achieved by creating barriers, overhead foot
bridges or under passes. Zebra crossings should be
provided on major roads in our cities.
5. Roads in our cities need regular maintenance. The
Road Maintenance Agencies should be well funded to
carry out their duties. Roads that need rehabilitation
should receive government attention.
6. There has not been any comprehensive transportation
study for many urban centres in Nigeria. Thus the
volumes of traffic along many of the urban routes in our
cities are not known. A time-series data on the various
components of urban traffic is of great importance to city
planners interested in future transport planning. Traffic
flows along major roads in our cities need to be
monitored regularly so that the design capacities of those
roads are not exceeded.
At the national level, it is being suggested that the
country adopts Best Practice which involves using the
best techniques that have been tried and shown to be
effective. Such techniques include using cleaner fuels,
retrofitting engines, improving public transportation,
coordinating interdepartmental efforts and enforcing
stricter traffic rules. It has also been suggested that
managing traffic and travel demand, forming public-
private partnerships and using traffic calming and
alternative fuels would help in reducing transportation
problems in our cities. In addition, promoting non-
motorised modes of transportation, integrating land-use
and transportation planning, inspecting and maintaining
vehicles, increasing education levels and controlling
urban population growth will go a long way in reducing
urban transportation problems in developing countries.
CONCLUSION
This paper has examined the nature, types and causes of
urban transportation problems in Nigerian cities and has
made suggestions to reduce the problems. Even though
urban transportation problems remain recurrent in many
of our urban centres, effort should still be made to adopt
Best Practices acknowledged to be effective elsewhere
to tackle the transportation problems in Nigerian cities. It
is suggested that approaches that are flexible and
adaptable to various urban areas should be encouraged
and that each city would need to develop its own version
of the measures suggested.
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