TRAFFIC VOLUME STUDY

The essence of traffic volume count in any society cannot be overemphasized. The importance varies from city to city depending on its level of development and the projected level of safe and efficient traffic management it aims at attaining within a stipulated time. This study has reviewed and highlighted and discussed the causes, general effects and possible solutions to the regular traffic congestions on the University of Benin Teaching Hospitals Junction which has become a norm for decades. The study employed simply method of manual traffic count in obtaining the data required for the study. A set of questionnaires with few relevant questions concerning the management oftraffic on the junction was equally administered on the drivers who ply the junction within the period of the study. Tally system of bundle and strokes were used in the study for easy documentation of the volume of the traffic being counted. The study has reviewed the major causes of traffic congestion on the junction to include in adequate parking space, low carrying capacity of the junction as compare to the expected traffic, poor traffic management, lack of basic traffic facilities and personnel, poor implementation of traffic rules and regulations and disobedience to traffic orders and wardens. It has also suggested some of the remedies to include construction of standard interchange structures such as overhead bridge and flyover on the junction, stiffer measures on the traffic offenders, implementation of traffic policies and periodic traffic study on the junction and installation of traffic facilities on the junction to ensure smoother flow of traffic considering the strategic importance of the intersection to the socio-economic well-being of the Benin-City, Edo State and Nigeria in general