ASSESSMENT OF OVERLOADING AND SAFETY PROBLEMS OF INTERCITY PUBLIC PASSENGER TRANSPORT ALONG MINNA-SULEJA ROAD, NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This research focuses on the overloading and safety problems of intercitypublic passenger transport along Minna-Suleja Road. The primary data were obtainedthrough structured questionnaires administered to motorists and field surveys, whereas thesecondary data were sourced from passenger manifests and FRSC accident records. Thestudy adopted a mixed-method approach in which data were gathered by administeringquestionnaires to 150 motorists via a simple random sampling technique. The samplepopulation was obtained from the passenger manifests of NURTW, RTEAN and NARTO at3 major terminal facilities in Minna (i.e. Mobil, Abdul-Salaam Park and Kure New MarketMotor Park). The findings revealed that the most active travellers in road transport are youthsbetween the age brackets of 21-30 years and 31-40 years, having a combined frequency andpercentage of 84% and 56%, respectively. Gender composition shows that 58.7% were maleand 41.3% were female. The marital status shows that 26% were single, while 64% weremarried. Additionally, the result revealed that 31.3% of the travellers were intotrading/business, with 24% being civil servants. Business and work trips had the highestnumber of trip purposes, with 44.7% and 23.3% respectively. 33.3% of passengers find farebarely affordable, and 34% find overloading of vehicles terrible. The nonchalant attitude ofdrivers ranked highest, with a mean score of 1.65, as a factor causing overloading, withvehicle integrity ranking highest as a significant effect of overloading on travel, with a meanscore of 2.37. Finally, notable surges occurred in 2016 and 2017, where the number of RTCcases reached 907 and 943, respectively. The study recommends that FRSC and DRT need tointensify the enforcement of vehicle load limits and severe penalties for violators.