The state of urban road infrastructure and the implementation of the FRSC speed limiting devices in Nigeria

Abstract

Transportation is an essential part of human activity, and in many ways forms the basis of all socio-economic interactions. Since the first Ford’s Model T vehicle in 1908 which has metamorphosed into the present day high speed hybrid vehicles, yearly auto-crashes lead to the death of 1.2 million people, injury and disability of another 50 million which is challenging. Speeding is one of the most common contributing factors of traffic crashes and in Nigeria, the overall road traffic injury rate is about 41 per 1000 population and mortality from road traffic injuries is about 1.6 per 1000 population. This paper examines the effectiveness of automated speed control devices implementation in Nigeria in the face of dearth of intelligent transportation system (ITS) infrastructure in the country. The reason for speeding problem of speeding and the state of road infrastructure in the country were also examined. The paper reveals that effective control through speed limiting devices are ITS infrastructure based and that African countries like Nigeria are ripe for full ITS adaptation. It is therefore recommended among other things that the implementing agency should re-prioritize their road safety strategies while encouraging the government to increase budgetary allocation to ITS infrastructural development nationwide.