Fleet size and traffic flow rate dimensions of the University of Port Harcourt mass transit system

Abstract

The University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria is rapidly developing and expanding in spatial size, thus, leading to upsurge in population of staff, students, business owners and visitors. Consequently, there is the growing concern that with the current state of perennial buildup of traffic along the main entry and exit routes of the main campus; occurrence of major mobility crises, especially during the traffic peak-hours is only a matter of time. To make for better understanding and appreciation of the current traffic conditions, the precariousness of the near future and to recommend appropriate measures towards arresting the situation, this study became necessary. The paper evaluates the traffic characteristics of the study area using such temporal parameters as traffic volume, on/off peak traffic periods and traffic flow rate for 5 work-days of the week. For the traffic flow rate, the study revealed high volume of traffic within 1.5 kilometers network. This gave the average values of 8.8, 8.5, 8.2, 6.8 and 8.1 vehicles per minute in a 5-day count, for the morning peak-hour, between 8 and 9am. Similarly, evening peak-hour (4-5 pm) gave the average values of 5.8, 5.4, 5.1, 4.9 and 6.2 per minute. Fleet size was an average of 245 vehicles per day. The geometric features of the road networks, traffic volume and fleet size invariably contribute to the perennial gridlock at peak-hours. Values were obtained through the Gordon line traffic survey carried out on the five work-days of the week, consecutively.