RESTRUCTURING URBAN FREIGHT TRANSPORT TOWARDS ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY IN METROPOLITAN LAGOS

Abstract: Statement of the Research

In the course of achieving the needs of the densely population of a city, urban freight transport is essential in the massive movement of the required resources to meet these needs by the agent of demand and supply from the point of origin to the point of destination. Urban freight transport involves the mobility service of needed products between functional locations, e.g., ports, industrial companies, logistics warehouses and comprehensive markets, thereby establishes spatial interactions between different urban regions. In achieving this, many externalities such as congestion, air pollution, noise, greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation are generated, which affects the citizen well-being and economic viability. Urban freight transport is one of the major problem for cities to achieve a sustainable mobility especially in metropolitan Lagos. This is because the urban planning is concentrated on passenger transport whereas freight transport is regarded as business to business industry with less consideration of its impacts to urban planning and development. With a population of over 21 million people, Lagos is a commercial hub for various industries that rely on effective freight transport to sustain their operations. However, the current transportation infrastructure in Lagos metropolis is inadequate and insufficient to meet the growing demand for freight transport, it becomes increasingly essential to engage alternative strategies that promote citizen well-being and economic viability while maintaining a sustainable mobility in metropolitan Lagos.

Methodology and data

This work aims to unfold the core structure of urban freight transport system and explore the underlying interaction of actor’s perspective on policy problem and assumed causalities. In order to have a comprehensive understanding of the commonalities and differences and to explain different strategies to enhance the urban freight transport in metropolitan Lagos, a semi-structured interviews was conducted with the main actors. Actor analysis was employed by the use of cognitive mapping method to construct coded casual maps of actors consisting factors and causal relation.

Summary of results and conclusion

Numerous probabilities were ascertained for the enhanced management of urban freight and its impacts; these probabilities included synergetic collaboration between government and stakeholders, educational and sensitization programs, incentive-based programs for voluntary emissions reduction, local land use and parking policies, and more stringent national fuel efficiency and emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks and investment opportunities for actors and players in the respective domain of freight transport.. Further research is much needed on intrametropolitan freight movements and on the effectiveness of existing policies and strategies.