Abstract

Traffic congestion has become a problem in the central business district of Akure. These roads during peak periods have defied measures to alleviate such congestion, leading to poor mobility and economic losses in form of costs of fuel, oil, as well as time cost of road users. The field survey was conducted on two major roads in the Central Business District (CBD) namely Oba Adesida and Arakale roads while considering the two directions along each route namely directions A and B, C and D respectively. Traffic parameters such as flow rate, speed and density were analyzed from the traffic data collected from each route along each direction. The field survey was carried out for a week (from Monday to Sunday) during the peak periods. The speed along direction A of Oba Adesida road was low due to more vehicles traversing the route. However, the speed of vehicles along direction D of Arakale road was lower than that along direction C. The traffic parameters were plotted against each other for the four directions for the morning, afternoon and evening periods. The derived linear models (equations) along the four directions gave minimum speeds for morning, afternoon and evening of 33.64 km/hr, 33.65 km/hr and 30.71km/hr respectively along direction A and 30.94 km/hr, 31.80 km/hr and 31.88 km/hr respectively along direction B for Oba-Adesida road; 36.59 km/hr , 35.30 km/hr, 33.58 km/hr respectively along direction C and 35.25 km/hr, 34.75 km/hr and 34.07 km/hr respectively along direction D for Arakale road for no congestion to occur.