AN APPRAISAL OF VEHICULAR PARKING SITUATION IN ORE, NIGERIA

The study examines vehicular parking situation in Ore town with a view to identifyingprevailing parking problems and their mitigation measures in the town. Research design wasused in the study and a set of structured questionnaires; interview and field observations wereused for data collection sourced from primary and secondary sources respectively. Primarysources of data were collected from residents, motorists and commuters along major roads inthe study area. Adopting a Stratified random sampling technique to administer thequestionnaire given that the sample elements were at different zones in the town, a total of threehundred and fifteen (315) respondents were sampled. The questionnaires were analyzed usingthe Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 and Microsoft Excel in theanalysis of parking survey and computation of parking statistics in the study area. The studyrevealed that parking problems in Ore were brought about by so many factors namely; poorcondition of major roads, proliferation of illegal On-Street parking areas, poor traffic andparking control, temporary and permanent structures constructed on the right of way of thesampled roads among others. This practice not only reduced the right of way but it also reducedexisting off-street parking spaces in the sampled roads as submitted by the commuters andofficers of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development (MPPUD), Ondo Stateand Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC). The field survey revealed further that all the majorroads in the study area were encroached and parking regulatory signs were not provided inthese major roads to prevent indiscriminate on-street parking of vehicles. The studyrecommends rehabilitation of roads and removal of structures on the roads' shoulder,enforcement of minimum building setback bye-laws, and provision of off-street parking areas atstrategic locations in the study area.