OPTIMIZING RURAL TRANSPORT SERVICES FOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC INTEGRATION IN NIGERIA
Abstract
Rural areas are of utmost importance to the socio-economic and industrial growth of developing economy. The need to optimise rural transport services becomes indispensable to checkmate its increasing depopulation and increase socio-economic sustainability. It is on this basis that this study appraised rural transport services in Nigeria. The paper examined socio-economic profile and trip characterization of residents; analysed the characteristics of routes and vehicles' used for rural transport services; and appraised the factors that determine the quality of rural transport services. 120 copies of questionnaires were administered through systematic random sampling for residents in Oyedeji, Lagun and Akitiko in Oyo State, Nigeria. Both descriptive and inferential (Regression) statistics were used for data analysis. Findings revealed that over 60% of the residents engaged in agricultural related activities and mostly rely on para-transit means, particularly motorcycles (67%) for commuting. Unfortunately, most of the bituminous rural-urban roads are in poor condition (62.5%) and characterized by rickety vehicles (63.3%). The study concludes that the rural-urban trip pattern is restricted to less than 5km daily movement and characterized by quagmire in both passenger and freight movements due to the poor attention being accorded to rural transport infrastructural facilities.
The registered author has submitted the article (the "Work") for Transport & Logistics the International Journal published by the Institute of Logistics, FBERG, Technical University of Košice.
The author transfers to the Institute of Logistics, FBERG, Technical University of Košice (the "Publisher") during the full term of copyright, the exclusive rights comprised in the copyright of the Work, including but not limited to the right to publish the Work and the material contained therein throughout the world, in all languages and in all media of expression now known or later developed, and to license or permit others to do so.
Notwithstanding the above, the author retains the following:
- Proprietary rights other than copyright, such as patent rights.
- The right to make copies of all or part of the Work for the author’s use in classroom teaching.
- The right to use, after publication, all or part of the Work in a book by the author, or a collection of the author’s work.
- The right to make copies of the Work for internal distribution within the institution which employs the author.
- The right to use figures and tables of the Work, and up to 250 words of text, for any purpose.
- The right to make oral presentations of material from the Work.
- The right to publish an extended, updated or rewritten version in another periodical.
- The right to include the work (post and preprint version) in an institutional repository.
The author agrees that all copies made under any of the above conditions will include a notice of copyright and a citation to the Publication.
The author represents that the Work is the author’s original work. If the Work was prepared jointly, the author agrees to inform the co-authors of the terms of this Agreement and to obtain their permission to sign on their behalf. The Work is submitted only to this, and has not been published before. (If excerpts from copyrighted works are included, the author will obtain written permission from the copyright owners and show credit to the sources in the Work.) The author also represents that, to the best of his or her knowledge, the Work contains no libellous or unlawful statements, does not infringe on the rights of others, or contain material or instructions that might cause harm or injury.
