Urban Population Characteristics Benchmarking Inequity of Access to Public Transport Services in Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract Inequity in access to public transport services highlights the differences in the ease and difficulty in reaching destinations and affects the quality of urban life. The study examined the factors underlying Public Transport Service Accessibility Inequity (PTAI) of population groups and asked if inequity of accessibility to public transport services differs based on the travel needs of aggregated population groups. Incidental-random sampling technique was used to select 400 participants for a questionnaire survey in ten major transit stops in Ibadan. Over a period of five (5) working days, 40 commuters were engaged in each of the transit stops. Descriptive statistics was employed to summarize the responses from the sampled respondents. One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test if the PTAI of aggregated population groups differs based on their travel needs at a statistical probability of 5% level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that public transport services are inadequate for the low-income groups. More so, PTAI differ based on the travel needs/purposes of aggregated population groups and low-income people who use public transport to access essential activities such as work and education experience a higher levels of public transport accessibility inequity than those who use public transport to access other activities which are either domestic, social or leisure. Government and policymakers should therefore prioritize the accessibility of low-income groups whose travel purposes are majorly work and education to public transport by formulating strategic policies which addresses their peculiar transport needs.