Analysis of Traffic Flow Problems in Ilorin Central Business District, Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

Nowadays, traffic situation in major Nigerian cities is simply chaotic. Ilorin which is a medium size city is not
an exception. The city’s (Ilorin) Central Business District (CBD) and important commercial corridors are
congested with automobiles. Though the traffic flow problems on these commercial corridors have not yet
assumed the deplorable stage as those of the larger cities such as Lagos, but signs of potential bottlenecks are
already emerging, as demonstrated by the high rate of growth of commercial activities along the roads and
difficulties experienced in traffic movement on these roads. With these anticipatory problems, the issue of traffic
flow draws significant attention each day and should not be left until it deteriorates to unbearable level. It is
against this background that this paper aimed to analyse traffic flow in commercial areas of Ibrahim Taiwo Road
and Murtala Mohammed Way areas of Ilorin CBD as a basis of identifying traffic flow problems and making
appropriate recommendations for improvement. The methodology used includes; road inventory, traffic
volumetric count, delay study, origin-destination survey and capacity study were conducted to gather
information about traffic situation of the studied roads. The study established that traffic congestion due to high
volume beyond road capacities at both morning and afternoon peak periods (13,154.97pcu and 15,354.89pcu),
traffic delays and time wastage with average delay time of 10.44minutes across all roads, and traffic problems
associated with poor design and operational capacity where most of the roads has as high road capacity overused
of 5,648pcu and as low as 883pcu in the metropolis. Hence, the paper recommended that, the use of motorcycle
and tricycle as a means of public transport should be discouraged by providing Bus Rapid Transit system in the
CBD and the metropolis at large. There is also the need to improve on the integration of landuses with transit
corridors to reduce excess travel demand in the metropolis.