Needs For Transportation Planning and Management In Nigeria Using Geographic Information System (Published)
Transportation is the act of transporting or the state of being transported; conveyance; often of people, goods, etc, while planning stands as the act of formulating of a course or courses of action, or of drawing up plans or programes for future events or activities. Geographic information system is a survey tool used to capture, store, query, analyze, manage and display geographic information/data (Kang-Tsung Chang, 2002). Geographic information system (GIS) technology has the ability to integrate common data base operations such as query and statistical analysis with unique visualization and geographic analysis. These abilities distinguish GIS from other information systems and make it valuable to a wide range of public and private enterprises for explaining events, predicting out comes and planning strategies. The objective of this article is to articulate the success of geographic information system applications in transportation planning. The methodology applied was the administration of questionnaires by stratified sampling to major stake-holders in GIS and transportation technology such as surveyors, traffic warden staff, road safety staff, police, some members of the national union of road transport workers, some staff of the Ministry of Transport (including the vehicle inspection officers), Staff of State Security services (SSS) and transportation planners. Secondary information were also obtained from books, journal articles and conference papers. The use of computer and some software made the research simpler. The results of the observations and analysis show that the centralized traffic control room can be made use of, to effectively manage the traffic. Information about the number of vehicles on each road, where there are jams and alternative roads can be displayed on electronic signboards installed at important traffic road junction. The discussions so far show that the use of GIS for transportation management is ideal and has come to stay universally, and so should be adopted in Nigeria.
Keywords: Geographic Information System, Management, Traffic, Transportation