This paper ascertained the effects of road expansion programmes of Owerri urban on the shopping attributes of the inhabitants. The study was carried out in order to determine the extent to which road expansion programmes affected travel time, travel cost, parking facilities, accessibility and shopping expenditures of the city inhabitants. A survey was carried out using structured questionnaire on five point Likert scale. Three hundred and ninety nine questionnaires were distributed among the three roads covered in the study and were all completed and returned for the analysis. Descriptive statistics and Friedman test were used to analyze and test the hypotheses. The results show that road expansion programmes had significant effects on parking facilities on the three major roads covered in the study namely; Okigwe, Douglas and Wetheral roads on its shopping and marketing activities of Owerri city inhabitants. The expansion programmes also affected shops/market locations along the roads when tested at 5% level of significance. Accessibility to shopping centres and city markets were also affected adversely when tested at 5% significant level indicating increased travel time and access to markets. However, shopping expenditures showed significant effects on Wetheral and Douglas roads while Okigwe road showed no significant effects on shopping expenditures. The results of the analysis indicate that road expansion programmes had negative effects on shopping attributes of city inhabitants since it restricts access and increased travel times. The study recommends among others the decentralization of urban land use among the traffic attracting centres.
Keywords: Expansion, Inhabitants, Road, shopping attributes, urban city
