Urban Socio-economic Development and Intra-city travel in Ogun state, Nigeria

Abstract

This study is on influence of socio-economic development of urban centers on intra-city trip generation in Ogun state, Nigeria. The proportion of the aggregate socio-economic variables in each city was used to rank the cities in hierarchical order of development while the average household trip per week was used to rank cities on trip generation. Spearman rank correlation was used to establish nature and extent of relationship between level of urban development and frequency of trip generation of urban centers. The urban centers exhibit hierarchical development pattern both in level of development and trip generation. Abeokuta dominates the distribution of socio-economic variables with aggregate average of 31.22%. This is followed by Ijebu-Ode (14.41%) and Sagamu (10.33%). In the same manner, Abeokuta has the highest average of household trip generation in the state. Ijebu-ode and Sagamu followed with 43 trips per week each. There is a significant high positive correlation coefficient (r=0.75, p≤0.01) between level of urban development and household trip generation. With coefficient of determination (r2) of 0.56, 56% of variation in household trip generation in Ogun state is explained by level of socio-economic development of cities. This suggests the needs to be critical in using socio-economic characteristics of residents alone as measures of determinants of household travel behavior as done in several previous studies in transport research.Key words: Intra-urban, trip generation, Socio-economic development, urban centers, Nigeria, OgunState.