Assessment of vehicle trip production rates in Ilorin (Nigeria)

Abstract

Urban transportation planning involves four sequential stages of trip production, distribution, modal split and assignment. Inaccurate quantification of trip production affects the other stages, leading to ineffective manage-ment of traffic (motorized and non-motorized) and breakdown of mobility within the city. Assessment of trip rates for estimation of traffic flow in Ilorin was undertaken. The city was divided into 5 zones, and origin and destination traffic survey questionnaires were administered to 110 households in each zone, to obtain primary data on socio-economic characteristics of daily trip patterns and preferred modes of travel. The data was analyz-ed for trip production rates by regression and cross classification models. Occupation, age, gender, income lev-el, vehicle ownership, trip length and fare structure affected the total trip generation, with an average production rate of 3.5, in the range of 2.79 - 4.29. The lower rate was characteristic of school children (5 - 15 years), while the highest rate was attributed to affluent and elderly persons owing cars. Motorized traffic generated 85 % of the trips, while inter-zonal movements from high density residential zones to schools and/or markets were the dominant traffic patterns.