Cultural dimension to public transport safety in Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

Culture is an indispensable part of any society. The study examined the dimension of culture to the safety of public transportation in Ibadan metropolis. Both primary and secondary data were collected for the study. A pre-test questionnaire was administered on 222 professional interstate drivers who were randomly selected from the membership records kept by Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in the selected motor parks. These were complemented with Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and Key Informants Interviews (KII). Secondary information was sourced from the literature, NURTW office at Olomi (Ibadan) and from the Trans-City Transport Company (TCTC) office in Ibadan. Findings indicated that 62.2% of the interstate drivers had driven in the last 10 years, 68.9% had no formal driving training and 98.6% were aware that other commercial drivers use charms such as ‘Egbe’, ‘Ajabo’ and ‘Owo’ while driving. Similarly, 58.1% believed that killing of duck, if not appeased, can result in road crashes, 49.1 % was of the opinion that transporting mortar without putting coin in it can lead to road crashes and 30.2% noted that carrying corpse without inserting palm fronds or leaves on the vehicle may result in road crashes. The study suggested further enlightenment and training programme on road safety for the interstate commercial drivers as well as the integration of formalized traditional road safety devices into national road safety policy.