ANALYSIS OF TRAFFIC FLOW AND MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES IN YENAGOA, NIGERIA

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the flow of vehicular traffic and suggest management strategies to be adopted in Yenagoa to ease flows and congestions. The gravity model provided the theoretical basis for this study. A survey research design involving volumetric count restricted to Melford Okilo Way, Isaac Boro Road, Etegwe/Tombia Road and SaniAbacha and Azikoro Way was adopted. Result of vehicular traffic flow showed that tricycles and cars generate more through traffic across all traffic corridors in Yenagoa. Using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), the extracted three components showed 20.95%, 14.08% and 11.78% of the total variance. The extracted components were subjected to further analysis using multiple regression analysis. The result of the regression model revealed that the extracted components explained 0.614 (61.4%) of influence on vehicular traffic in Yenagoa at 0.05 significance level. There is the need for an efficient traffic management such as zoning of land uses and introduction of off-street parking and parking lots at affordable rates to ease traffic flow in Yenagoa.