Modelling Traffic Congestion Using Analytic Hierarchy Process In A Geomatics Environment, A Case Of Lagos State

1.0 BACKGROUND

Many of the metropolitan traffic management control centres established in 1970's and 1980's in the Western and Asian countries have been replaced by large wall-mounted maps with Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) displays. This is done in order to achieve optimal transportation systems. The capability of GIS to map and define the geometric relationship between spatial entities (topology), overlay separate entities of the same theme, and to handle data of different formats has made it a one-to-none in transportation planning, analysis and management

Urban transportation management, such as required on our urban roads, is a complex subject because many things are influenced and are affected by transportation. Although the ultimate goal of transport management is to develop, coordinate and maintain a transportation network that provides the optimum capability for the movement of people and commodities in the most time efficient, convenient, safe, reliable, and cost-effective manner. It must do these in a way consistent with the environmental interests of the people. Transport management can be immensely enhanced and simplified by the use of a geospatial information system (Olaleye, 1999).

In order to have an efficient management of the vehicular and human traffic elements, there is need for improvement on the transportation network infrastructure and its proper maintenance. Dysfunction within any of the elements can lead to a breakdown of the system and this is more apparent in urban transport systems in developing countries where congestion is witnessed everyday