Analysis of Intra-Urban Freight Traffic Pattern in Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the intra-urban freight trips pattern in Lagos State, Nigeria. Major traffic bottlenecks along selected roads served as data collection stations for this study. At each station, data were collected on type of vehicle, origin of trip, destination of trip, land use at origin and land use at destination by trained field assistants. A combination of observatory survey and questionnaire administration to freight vehicle drivers was used for the data collection. A total of 12,533 drivers of freight vehicles who at the time of the survey were conveying goods in their vehicles for delivery were randomly sampled. Both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were employed for data analysis. Simple percentages, averages, tabulation and charts are some of the descriptive statistical techniques employed to measure the spread of observations. Two-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypothesis that “freight vehicle’s trips do not vary by land use types in the study area”. Urban land use was found to significantly influence freight trips. The study revealed that commercial, industrial, residential and circulatory land uses are the pivots upon which urban freight movement revolves in the study area. Commercial land use is the largest generator (42%) and attractor (34%) of urban freight trips. Industrial land use generates 28% and attracts 20% of the urban freight trips, while residential land use generates 4% and attracts 26%. Also, circulatory land use generates 17% and attracts 8% of the urban freight trips. The analysis also revealed that small trucks are the commonly used vehicles for intra-urban freight movement in the study area accounting for about 47% of the freight trips. Also, freight vehicles’ trips significantly varied by land use types, F (4, 1) = 3097.39, P = 0.13. This study concludes that land use types played a significant role in the pattern of freight traffic distribution in the study area. It was therefore recommended that efforts should be directed towards effective freight transport planning and management in the study area.