EVALUATIONOF TRAFFIC PARAMETERS AND PARKING CHARACTERISTICS AROUND THE CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT (CBD) OF ADO-EKITI, EKITISTATE,NIGERIA

Abstract

Traffic parameters and parking characteristics for the Central Business Districts (CBD) of Ado Ekiti were evaluated. Data on traffic composition, speed, volume and volume-capacity ratio were collected for morning, afternoon and evening peak periods in order to determine the levels of service on the major roads around the CBD such as a portion of Ado Ikere, Post office and Olayinka roads.The analysis traffic composition revealed motorcycle as the predominant mode constituting 71.39% of traffic followed by passenger cars constituting 24.65% and mini buses, tricycles, trucks, lorries and bicycles constituting 2.19%, 0.57%, 0.52%, 0.24% and 0.03% respectively. The present levels of service on Post office, a portion of Ado Ikere and Olayinka roads were A, D and A, which indicate that Post office and Olayinka roads are moderately congested while a portion of Ado -Ikere road is severely congested. The traffic projection at a growth rate of 5% in accordance with TRB and a projection for ten (10) years, the future Levels of Service for all the routes will be “F” which could imply severe congestion by 2027. Data on the parking characteristics were collected by conducting parking survey using questionnaires to evaluate the parking indices for three selected parks around the CBD. Parks selected were Fajuyi, Fayose and Ijigbo Parks with 25, 65 and 205 parking spaces respectively. The average occupancy for the parking facilities were 140%, 131% and 156% respectively. This showed that the parking facilities operated above the maximum capacity. Parking headway for each of the parks were modeled to get the Arrival and Departure rates using a queuing model. Kolmogorov–Smirnov test was used to determine the goodness of fit of the model which indicated that both the arrival and departure rates are exponentially distributed with all showing a P-value greater than the significance level (0.05). The Arrival rate (λ) for Fajuyi, Fayose and Ijigbo parks were 0.00299, 0.00596 and 0.00449 respectively while the departure rates (μ) were 0.00293, 0.00596 and 0.00596 respectively. The model developed proved useful for determining parking headway which can in turn be used to design parking signals in the study area