THE NIGERIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY
ISSN: 0331-4111
Volume 8, No. 1, 2010
DOI: 10.36108/NJSA/0102/80(0120)
Urbanization, gender and transport research issues and insights in Nigeria: Towards a sustainable gender sensitive transport development
R. A. Asiyanbola
Department of Geography and Regional Planning Olabisi Onabanjo University Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria
Abstract
Urban transport, which serves as the sinew binding together various land-uses, has not only remained inefficient, but has grown over the years to be expensive and hazardous. Although, the situation of urban transport system in the Nigerian cities affects women and men, not until recently previous empirical and theoretical discussions most of the time assumed the universality of women’s and men’s experience. Every attempt at solving intra-urban mobility problems was made without gender considerations. The assumptions have always been such that the solutions are applicable equally to both men and women. In most cases, pure traditional economic variables which ignore crucial cultural roles and the salience of the life course are used to derive some of these solutions. Yet those missing variables are parts of our realities which of course need to be applied in formulating any transportation policy. The place of gender has been found to be very important in effective policy formulation because man and woman are not equal urban space users and actors. The paper provided an overview of gender and transport research and the policy implications towards a gender sensitive transport development in the Third World, particularly, Nigeria.
Keywords: urbanisation, transport research, transport development, gender, Nigeria