The level of urbanization in the developing world indicates that more people live in cities now than before. As urbanization increases, road usage also increases proportionately which sometimes introduce some strain to the existing road and as a consequence constitutes some impediments to free traffic flow. The situation described above is on the increase in Chanchaga Local Government Area of Niger State, an urban centre in North Central, Nigeria. In order to investigate the probable causes and degree of severity of this menace, an attempt has been made in this research to investigate and map out the nature of traffic congestion frequently experienced on some selected roads within Chanchaga LGA. These road networks include Kpakungun - Gidan Kwano road, Bosso-Mobil route, Bosso – Mekunkele route, Kpakungun – city gate road and Book roundabout – Mobil Route. Using a 1m Pan-Sharpened spatial resolution IKONOS Image, handheld GPS receivers, and manual traffic count, the traffic patterns of the selected road networks within the study area were assessed and mapped out. A Geo-Database was also designed for the routes which provide information about the road pavement condition, average traffic volume, adjacent land use, etc. Analysis of results and other queries performed revealed that the most probable causes of traffic congestion in Chanchaga LGA include narrow road width, bad road pavement and indiscriminate parking of vehicles along the road corridors, especially by commercial cab drivers. Conclusively, it was observed that the Kpakungun axis of Minna – Bida road is the most congested route of all the road networks considered, closely followed by the Bosso-Mobil Road. The traffic gridlock along these routes is most prominent on Mondays and Wednesdays (around 8 am and 4 pm) and also on Fridays (around 1-4pm). Also, a free traffic flow is often experienced on Saturdays by 8 am which gradually builds into a synchronized flow around the evening time on all the road networks considered.
MAPPING AND ASSESSMENT OF TRAFFIC CONGESTION ON MAJOR ROADS IN MINNA (CASE STUDY OF CHANCHAGA L.G.A)
