Public transportation in metropolitan Lagos, Nigeria: analysis of public transport users’ socioeconomic characteristics

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of the study of socioeconomic characteristics of the users in metropolitan Lagos. Specifically, it provides detailed analysis of the public transport users, disaggregated by gender, marital status, age, education level, employment, income, auto-ownership and household size, with a view to engender the identification of groups of passengers who exhibit similar behaviours. The identification of these groups can help establish regular patterns in the way passengers use public transit and characterize the demand accordingly. The average user was male (60.3%), aged 32.9 ± 0.289 years, with an average income of N57,140.55 ± 1,446.86 and household size of 4.92 ± 0.052 persons, having acquired 12.84 ± 0.119 years of formal education, traveling 25.479 ± 0.4307 kilometres daily in 110.29 ± 3.318 minutes on public transport on an average cost of N712.83 ± 29.749. The paper concludes that without a clear understanding of these patterns, it would be difficult to make accurate demand forecast, necessary for service planning and policy formulation.

Keywords:

• Socioeconomics characteristics
• public transport user
• metropolitan Lagos

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.