Morroco Paper

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The Present Traffic Condition and the Future Direction in the city of Abuja.

AKINMADE. O.D 1 .

1. Research Officer Nigeria Building and Road ResearchInstitute Abuja

ABSTRACT: Abuja region in Nigeria has started facing serious traffic congestion especially during

peak hours in the central business district ,virtual all activities is been done in the Central Business

District Area and due to lack of adequate transportation facilities and intermodal transportation ,personal

vehicles is on the increase. This is an indication of transport problems, most motorist spend at least 2

hours to enter the CBD and at least another 2hrs to leave the CBD on a journey of 15mins .This

monograph is part of the ongoing research project to analyze the traffic situation in Abuja metropolis and

it introduces the traffic situation in Abuja metropolis and analyzes the cause and possible remedies .The

causes of traffic congestion are classified into three component. Driver and commuter Behavioral

problems, problems in the transport system and problem in social system. The countermeasures are

classified into three categories. The improvement traffic regulation, improvement of infrastructure and

control and users education. It was found that in the long run government has to construct more transport

infrastructures, diversify the transport sector by constructing alternatives means of mobility to road but on

the other hand there exists methodology or ideas to improve traffic situation in the short term.

Key words: Abuja Nigeria, traffic congestion, drivers behavior, transport infrastructure

1Corresponding author Tel.: + 23408161664239

E-mail address: [email protected]


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1. INTRODUCTION

Urban settlements with population over 1 million people are usually called megalopolises. Usually,

megalopolises are administrative centers, major national and regional industrial, financial, cultural

centers, and cities with the highest living standards. One of the main challenges under development

of megalopolises is how to maintain the transport system under the growing motorization, that is to

say, the process of uncontrolled growth of private cars. Initial motorization stages showed mainly

positive aspects: time saving, significant increase in transport accessibility and mobility, regular

and accurate delivery of passengers and cargo, growing trip comfort and so forth. However, after

reaching a certain motorization level, the negative consequences have started appearing more and

more intensively: death and injuries due to traffic accidents, traffic congestion, and difficulty to

protect public transport, the pollution of the environment and so on. Most megalopolises have been

facing this situation for a long time, since they found that the complex of transport problems would

almost nullify the advantages of the car use. Global tendencies have become more apparent in

Nigeria as well. Private car becomes an integral part of the way of life in Nigeria. It is said that by

2020 as many as five out of ten Nigerian families will use cars. Share of private cars in the national

transport balance also keeps growing. The situation is the most serious in Abuja Capital Territory

1.1 BACKGROUNDAbuja is the capital city of Nigeria . It is located in the center of Nigeria, within the Federal Capital

Territory (FCT). Abuja is a planned city , and was built mainly in the 1980s. It officially became

Nigeria's capital on 12 December 1991, replacing Lagos , which is still the country's most populous

city. At the 2006 census, the city of Abuja had a population of 778,567, making it one of the top

ten most populous cities in Nigeria and currently the population is above a million. Abuja's

geography is defined by Aso Rock , a 400-metre monolith left by water erosion . Abuja is known for

being the best purpose-built city in Africa as well as being one of the wealthiest and most

expensive; however, the population on the semi-developed edges of the city are living in ruralareas such as suleja,Kaduna road,kwamba,madalla e.t.c in Niger state and karu,masaka,maraba,

Nyanyan in Nasarawa, State . However Abuja is composed of Abuja's Central District ,wuse

district,Gwarimpa district,Maitama district,Asokoro district,Guzape district,jabi district e.t.c.


http://www.ask.com/wiki/Capital_city?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Capital_city?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Nigeria?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Nigeria?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Federal_Capital_Territory,_Nigeria?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Federal_Capital_Territory,_Nigeria?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Federal_Capital_Territory,_Nigeria?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Planned_city?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Lagos?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Aso_Rock?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Aso_Rock?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Monolith?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Monolith?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Water_erosion?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Nasarawa_State?qsrc=3044http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_District,_Abujahttp://www.ask.com/wiki/Nigeria?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Federal_Capital_Territory,_Nigeria?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Federal_Capital_Territory,_Nigeria?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Planned_city?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Lagos?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Aso_Rock?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Monolith?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Water_erosion?qsrc=3044http://www.ask.com/wiki/Nasarawa_State?qsrc=3044http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_District,_Abujahttp://www.ask.com/wiki/Capital_city?qsrc=3044


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The road structure of Abuja region is ring and radial. The region is covered with 5 ring highways

and 18 main radial highways. Federal highways account for 39,000km,25,000km for

states,129,000km for local government. The annual average daily traffic volume in the advance

sections of federal highways is extremely high; some highways carry more than 60 thousand

vehicles a day and there is a highway that carries more than 130 thousand vehicles a day. With the

motorization level of the population living within the Abuja cities being comparable with the

Motorization level of most African cities, it is obvious that more automobile roads are necessary in

the Federal capital Territory since is still the only means of transport within and around Abuja.

Fig. 1.0 Abuja map

Source :Google Earth.

1.2 Traffic Situation in Abuja capital Territory.According to the statistics provided by the federal road safety corps , the situation of traffic

accident in Abuja region is The number of accidents is now decreasing gradually.




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Akinmade O.D. et al . (2012) pointed out that the reason for this drastic reduction in accident rate is

due to the implementation of the Federal Road safety policies especially in the year 2010.However,

still lots of people are killed in accidents especially in Abuja and its environs which are avoidable

and preventable if strict measures are implored.

TABLE 1.0 ROAD TRAFFIC CRASH REPORTS

STATEFATALCASES

SERIOUSCASES

MINORCASES

TOTALCASES

PERSONSKILLED

PERSONINJURED

TOTALCASUALT

YFCT 2000 94 128 54 276 173 367 540

2001 8 11 12 31 5 28 332002 124 316 19 459 263 1248 15112003 118 267 50 435 369 1073 14422004 101 277 86 464 249 1027 1276

2005 106 224 166 496 236 1096 13322006 108 213 32 353 332 1171 15032007 24 64 35 123 77 225 3022008 181 333 176 690 390 1086 14762009 21 42 34 95 72 221 2932010 6 24 4 34 17 109 126

Source:FRSC ROAD TRAFFIC CRASH REPORTS

In Abuja City, traffic congestion is a chronic and serious problem as shown in Figure 2. Traffic

congestion irritates drivers at a lot of road sections not only in peak hours but also in other periodsof time. The most irritative thing is that they cannot forecast their travel time once they start

driving. It may take two or more hours to travel between sections where you can pass through in

15 minutes if there is no congestion. However there has not been a study to estimate the huge loss

to the Nigerian economy as a result of this menace. According to Trofimenkos (2006), the annual

loss of time was estimated to be 87.5hours per person and the total monetary annual loss was

estimated to be 31.6 billion rubles(approx. 1 billion dollars) in Moscow city.




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Figure 2 Traffic Congestion along arterial entering the City(Nyanyan-Mararabaroad)

To improve those situations, it is obvious that more road infrastructure should be constructed

in a long run. However, considering the urgency of this problem, it is also necessary to apply

Countermeasures that is possible to realize in two or three years. This paper diagnoses the

Causes of the transport problem and considers realizable countermeasures. Since most of the

Causes of traffic accidents are basically included in that of traffic congestion, now the causes

of the traffic congestion are going to be discussed here.




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3. METHODOLOGY.The paper highlights the issues causing traffic congestion and probably solutions recommended in

short term,in doing this we drove round the major arterials, had discussion with motorist during the

weekdays and the weekend, however questionnaires was not developed and we only consideredvisual and on site discussion with the motorist and few drivers to actually know the cause and

profer solution in short term.

4. CAUSATIVE FACTORS OF TRAFFIC CONGESTION IN ABUJA CAPITALThe causes of traffic congestion are been classified into three categories: problems on driversBehavior, transport system and societal problems.

4.1 Problems on the Behavioral factors of driversIn general, the driving ethics of Nigerian drivers are not so good and they tend to have a high

threshold for violation of traffic law. Above all, the following four points must be influentialfactors.

4.1.1 Surging into Intersections

Even when a section just after an intersection is full of traffic and it is obvious that a driver

will block the intersection if entering into it, a lot of drivers tend not to stop before the

intersection but to surge into it (Figure 3). As was expected, they block the intersection,

disturb other traffic flows and produce unnecessary congestion, even when there is a police officer

controlling the traffic manual ,private and public buses called Araba violates the tafffic law and

insurge into the intersections as shown below.




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Figure 3 Left-turning Vehicles surging into an Intersection

Most of the Nigerian Drivers in Nigeria are not good at considering the effect of their own

behavior on others and tend to think go further if there is a space!

4.1.2 Cutting into Line

In general drivers in Nigeria tend to cut into line; however some dont even have stop markings on

the pavement as shown below. and they often wait in through lanes so as to cut into left or right

turn lanes from there. In Nigeria, phases for left-or-right-turning vehicles are often separated from

the phase for through traffic, they may block the through lanes for a long time even when the

number of lane is not sufficient. Moreover, in the case of traffic congestion in through traffic, a lot

of vehicles going through often wait in the left or right turn lanes to cut into the through lanes and

cause unnecessary congestion.




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Fig 4.0 Cutting into Line and no stop markings

4.1.3 Running into Narrow Streets or going against traffic.

When Drivers experience traffic congestion in an approach, it is typical for drivers to run intonarrow streets to search other routes and this behavior may cause another traffic congestion in the

narrow street.. As a matter of fact, it may take more time for those drivers to pass through the

narrow streets than to go straight along the wide congested route . Also due to congestion some

drivers during early hours of the day and late evenings tend to drive against traffic due to the fact

that road traffic enforcement is virtually not 24hrs

4.1.4 Parking and selling on Besides the Roads

In Abuja and its environs drivers do not care about on-street parking because there are less parking

places than needed and the control of illegal parking is not tight at all, lots of drivers tend to double

park, to park near the bus stops, intersections or where is prone to be a bottleneck ,some parking

bays have been turned into permanent parking lots for public buses and taxis(Figure 5).The

vehicles searching parking place in slow speed are also problematic. While some of the parking

bays have been turned into a market zones .




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Figure 5 On-street Parking and Double Parking

4.2 Problems in the Transport SystemHere, I would like to introduce problems in the transport system.

4.2.1 Inadequate Infrastructure and infrastructural decayIt should be pointed out first that the rate of road area is still small and not sufficient for present

huge traffic demand. Moreover, compared with the number of vehicles on the roads, the amount of

parking place is desperately small. The shortage of road infrastructure may naturally cause traffic

congestion, and the deficiency of parking places may increase drivers on-street parking.Bad roads

are common features since there are no alternatives to road transport,no maintenance adequate and

prompt and no proper design and construction.FERMA activities have been virtually not been felt

in the area of maintain the roads which they have mandate ,however they have been vocal but the

effect is not been felt.

4.2.2. Provision of mass transit .The provision of mass transit should be holistic and realistic even with the subsidy removed from

petroleum and the promise by government to provide mass transit has not really helped the

situation ,because people saddled to manage this mass transit end up turning it to their personal

property, treat the public with disdane,ply any route they like and they dont even have proper

timing to know when and where to ply.

4.3 SOCIETIAL PROBLEMS9

Corresponding author Tel.: + 23408161664239 E-mail address: [email protected]


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The last point of view is from social system. There are several problems in the social system

of Abuja that have serious effects.

4.3.1 Time-Consuming Registration Process of Traffic Accidents

According to the traffic law in the Nigeria, when a driver causes an accident, one must stop at the

point and start the necessary procedure, and basically one must not leave the accident scene before

the police arrive. This rule can be observed in other countries also. However, usually it takes

longer time until a police officer reaches the accident location. Usually one must wait for a couple

of hours without moving the vehicle from the location. This situation can cause serious traffic

congestion or block .Although it is also written in the law that one must try to make a room for

other traffic flows, it does not work well in realiality.

4.3.2 Unexpected RoadblocksWhile a VIP (with or without police escort) passes a road, the police officers always block the

other traffic by their hands or by controlling all of signal lights as red. This treatment can be

Understandable from the viewpoint of security. The problem is that in this case no information is

usually provided to drivers about how to make a detour, how long the blockage continues and so

on. Under this situation, drivers cannot make any other behavior than waiting and get irritated. It

may cause a dangerous situation in terms of traffic safety. These kinds of road blockage should be

minimized in time.

4.3.3 Disabled Vehicles on Roads

A lot of vehicles (especially heavy) tend to be break down suddenly and need to stop on the roads.

On a road of heavy traffic flow, the decrease of one lane can make a serious traffic capacity

decrease and cause congestion .Furthermore, information about disabled vehicles is seldom

provided to drivers and it is hard to know the existence of disabled vehicles in advance. One of the

main reasons is that the regular safety inspection of each vehicle is not conducted properly

although there is a rule about.

5. Findings and Recommendation.




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Major problems have already been discussed. It seems to be profound to solve these Problems.

However, there are also some countermeasures that are achievable easily. Here are possible

countermeasures and basically it is been classified into three categories: improvement and

enforcement of traffic regulation, improvement and provision of infrastructure and

Management of people.

4.1 Improvement and Enforcement of Traffic Regulation

The first category is to improve and enforce traffic Regulation and apply stiffer penalties for

offenders.

4.1.1 To carryout assessment on traffic signal control system

It is necessary to review and evaluate the adequacy of split allocation and the legibility of signal

phase designing at every intersection. It is not usual in the world to use frontage roads for left turn

(in the right-hand traffic). It seems to be better to rearrange this left-turn system. Before doing this

it is absolutely necessary to conduct a survey to understand traffic flow at major intersections in

Abuja because there are less data about it. If possible, it might also useful to introduce real-time

signal controlling system by equipping and placing detectors. With experience in the major

developed cities in the world, increase in enforcement results in high rate of compliance to traffic

laws.

4.1.2 To Change the Policy of Left and Right Turn Arrow

It is much better to set not only green arrows but also yellow and red arrows so that drivers

can easily catch the meaning of the signal

4.1.3 Improvement on Road marking and placement of traffic signs properly.

Traffic signs, markings should be done based on what is obtainable in developed countries and

based on MUTCD standards.The issue of placing no U turn sign in a place where you have a flare

for u turn should be avoided and also in a situation where we have stop sign at an intersection on a

major road and the minor arm has no stop marking which will also confuses the driver is should be

avoided.

4.2 Improvement and provision of Infrastructure




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The second category is to improve the infrastructure.

4.2.1 Parking places should be equipped to meet international standards.

First of all, it is urgently necessary to increase parking places gradually in two or three years since

there are very few in the city and its environs. By conducting a survey to comprehend the present

parking needs, it is possible to calculate how many parking spots are required for which part of the

city of which Nigeria Building and Road Research Institute can conduct. For its realization, the

possible projects should be to allow to park at the places where have already used as parking place

without permission, to build large structures for parking at bus terminals for Park & Ride

promotion.This study should be regular to curb issue of overloading of parking bays based on

motorization level.

Fig. 6. A bus stop sign without a busbay.

3.2.4 To Secure Escape Routes in Emergencies




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It is better to secure several routes that are usually non-usable but available under the

supervision of the police when the main roads are stuck by serious accidents or roadblocks.

Spots where drivers can turn around or enter into frontage roads can be considered .

4.3.3. provision of traffic lights.

Most of the traffic signal lights do not work,not working properly or are not even available,hence

there is need for government to either bring in private companies to manage and provide this

traffic lights for proper efficiency and the funds generated from defaulters at junctions pr

intersection culd be used for their services and save government of spending money in this araea.

4.3 Management of the peopleThe final category is to properly management of the people.

3.3.1 To Prohibit Parking within 30m from Intersections Especially on two-lane roads, traffic

capacity is seriously damaged or reduced if there is only one car parking close to an intersection.

Hence, the farther a car park from an intersection, the smaller the effect of the parking car

becomes. Therefore, for example, it may be effective if the police or FRSC officer prohibit parking

within 30m from intersections. It is also important to reduce signal cycle time of intersections so as

to control the length of the queue generated in one cycle.

4.3.2 To Clarify Places where Parking is prohibited

It is significant to clarify zones where drivers cannot enter if it is obvious that they cannot go

ahead, such as inside intersections, inflow part of weaving sections and so on. If the police can

control well, it is possible to reduce unnecessary traffic congestion due to the drivers surging

behavior. In London, this system has already been implemented as Yellow Box Figure 14). If

they stop in these boxes, the police will control immediately. Also cameras should be placed at

every junction in other to capture and apprehend violators which in turn would generate income to

the government coffers in October 2010 it was stated that the south London yellow box in battersea

generated over 1million pounds and it was nicked named money box.




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Figure 7 Yellow Boxes in London

4.3.3 To Establish a Traffic Grid lock Reduction Team

It may be effective to establish a Traffic Grid lock Reduction Team that consists of the federal

road safety.civil defence,VIO and other private organizations with a mission to reduce traffic

congestion. The main job is to control on-street parking at vulnerable sections, to restrain drivers

from surging into intersections or cutting into line. To avoid bribery, it is better to employ them at

a high salary.

4.3.4 To Provide Information to Drivers

It is important to provide information about traffic situations to drivers by possible means as

well as ITS technologies. Especially information about unexpected event, such as accidents

and roadblocks, is necessary for drivers to think about the alternative routes.

4.3.5 To Speed Up the Registration Process of Traffic Accidents

It is inevitable to consider how to speed up the registration process of traffic accidents. Minor

accidents should be immediately registered to release the accident cars especially if an

accident occurs at points where huge traffic congestion is expected, such as at the center of

roads or inside intersections. For example, it might be possible that a police officer near the

accident point should first hurry to the point and take photographs then continue the

remaining procedures at different place.4.3.6 To Practice a Campaign of Smart Drive and attitudinal change of drivers

Even if a lot of above-mentioned countermeasures are put into execution, sufficient effects

cannot be seen without users understanding and changing their own behavior. To practice a




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campaign can be one possible measure to realize it. It might be effective to create a slogan, a

mascot and a logotype, and to use them in advertisement on TV, radio, newspapers, Internet

and so forth. It is essential to make drivers understand how they are related to present traffic

Congestion. Federal Road Safety need to do more in educating drivers, passengers in the need to

comply to traffic rules and regulation which inturn will complement other measures to have a

congestion free city.

Fig 8 A traffic police controlling traffic ,having motorist violating traffic laws.

5.0 CONCLUSION.




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In this paper, the traffic situation of Abuja metropolis was introduced especially from the

viewpoint of traffic congestion, and the main causes and possible countermeasures were discussed.

it was found that in the long run they have to construct plenty of infrastructures but on the other

hand there exist plenty of devices or ideas to improve traffic situation in short term.

Other than traffic congestion, there are still problems in logistics, public transport services, ITS

realization and so on. It is safe to say that there will be a lot of research topics in Abuja Territory

from now on. Transport systems is obvious among the factor that contributes immensely to the

detoriation of the quality of life and safety in metropolis and the urban transport situation in Abuja

and its environs is deteriorating especially in the city center and the major linkage to the city where

there is an excessive concentration of vehicles. Commuters in adjoining cities are faced with acute

road congestion, rising air pollution, and high level of accident risk. These problems cannot beeradicated without a concise and pragmatic urban transport strategy. The main objective of such a

strategy should be to give provision and enhance high-quality links for people by improving the

effectiveness and efficiency of the city transport systems. Policy should be enacted in such a way

to reduce personalized modes and boost public transport system. At the same time demand side as

well as supply-side management measures should effectively be put in place. Finally people

should be encouraged to use cycle, walk and government should provide enabling environment for

cycling, waking and also empower local urban authorities to raise finance and coordinate the

activities of various agencies involved in the provision of transport infrastructure in urban

areas.The Ministry of Transport and other relevant agencies like Nigeria Building and Road

Research Institute should be empowered to coordinate public transport in the area of project

implementation and research respectively Nigeria Building and Road Research Institute should

also look into the estimation of the cost of traffic congestion to the economy and a cost-benefit

analyses should be carried out also.

6.0 REFERENCES




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1. Akinmade .O.D. et.al. 2012 .Causes of road traffic crash in Nigeria.(unpublished)

2. Federal Road Safety Corps 2010 Annual Report.

3. Kiichiro HATOYAMA 2005 The present traffic condition and future direction of Moscow

metropolis. Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.8, 2011.

4. LU Huapu Urban Transportation in china :Current state of reform and future trends.journeys

2009.

5. Sanjay K. Singh 2005 review of urban Transportation in india.journal of public

transportation,vol.8.no.1(79-97)

6. The Nigeria Bureau of Statistics 2010Annual Report.

Akinmade Oluwatosin Daniel is a resourceful and result-oriented individual who aims at utilizing

his potentials optimally to achieve desired organizational aims, objective and goals in a highly

competitive, challenging and in high- pressure work environment, born on the 8 August, 1983,

single. A citizen of Nigerian from Ondo state.Had his bachelors in civil engineering in 2008 from

Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State.He proceeded to the prestigious Universiti

Teknologi Malaysia in 2011 where he had his masters degree in highway and transportation.My

interest is road safety Engineering, pavement materials analysis, traffic engineering. Currently a

research officer in the Nigerian Building and Road Research institute Abuja .I love Reading

,Travelling and meeting new friends.




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