Urban markets as freight nodes in the Lagos Metropolis

HABITAT-INTL. Printed

m &cat

Vol.

8, No.

3’4. pp.

173-179.

1984. 0

Britain.

OlY7-3Y75d+l $.i.Ol)+ 0 00 I%% Pcrgamon Prcsa Ltd.

Urban Markets as Freight Nodes in the Lagos Metropolis A.A. OGUNSANYA” University of Ilorin, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the structure of urban commodity flow in Lagos, Nigeria, by considering urban markets as freight generating functions. Earlier studies of traditional markets in Nigeria have been concerned primarily with their exchange functions. The paper estimates the volume and the variety of goods handled in each market and adopts the Graph Theoretic technique to structure the markets on the basis of the volume of freight exchanged between them. Some planning implications of the findings are discussed.

INTRODUCTION

Geographic studies of freight transport have taken two major dimensions. The first is the analysis of international freight flows and the second is concerned with flows within nations. This second category of studies has emphasised either interurban or rural-urban movements. The intra-urban movement of goods has either been completely slighted or insufficiently treated. This neglect is surprising in view of the considerable volume of freight that is moved in urban areas as a consequence of commercial and industrial functions and large size of population. Chinitz’s (1960) study of New York was a pioneering effort, but two international conferences in 1970, in Paris and Washington D.C. stimulated international interest in the problems of urban freight studies. In the Nigerian setting little work has been done on urban freight transport (see Ogunsanya: 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984). As elsewhere, urban transport studies have been concerned with the movement of persons and freight studies have focused on international and intra-national flcws. This paper is an attempt to examine the structure of urban commodity traffic in Nigeria. The paper focuses on urban markets as a type of traffic generating function. Earlier studies of traditional markets in Nigeria have been concerned primarily with their exchange functions (Sada and McNulty, 1974). The urban areas in general are made up according to the spatial distribution of functions and land-uses of freight attracting and freight generating areas. Other types of freight nodes, besides traditional markets are transport terminals, industries, warehouses and shopping centres. The paper estimates the volume and the variety of goods handled in each market and adopts the Graph Theoretic technique to structure the markets on the basis of the volume of freight exchanged between them. Some planning implications of the findings are discussed. *Address

for correspondence:

Department

of Geography,

H.&B 8:3,4-L

173

University

of Ilorin,

Ilorin,

Nigeria

174

A.A.

Ogunsunya

DATA SOURCES

The freight handled by markets in the metropolis are of three types. The first is metro-originating freight when the freight originates from the metropolitan markets and is destined for areas outside the metropolis. The second type is metro-terminating freight when the freight originates from outside the metropolis and is destined for markets within the metropolis. The third type, which is the component used in this paper, is the intra-metropolitan freight, of which the origin and the destination are both within the metropolis. Data were obtained in respect of this last category in a more extensive Urban Commodity Flow study carried out by the author in 1978. Information was obtained through questionnaire from the markets, on the volume and type of freight handled. Information on freight origin, destination, mode of transport, and cost of transport were also obtained from the major thirty markets in the metropolis. The locations of these markets are shown in Fig. 1. As it was not possible to survey all the sellers in the markets, a 3% sample, based on the size of the markets was taken. The size was defined by the number of stalls in each market, according to the data obtained by Sada and McNulty (1974). Enough care was taken to ensure that the sample represented a cross-section of the various sellers present in the market. Altogether a total of 1,002 traders were surveyed and when the defective questionnaires were removed, a total of 814 responses were analysed and used in the write-up. The methods of data analysis, especially those relating to standardisation of freight measures to allow for easy summation and comparability are discussed in Ogunsanya (1981). OTA

I

Agege

2 Ipod

C&hod 1 4 Kojola 6 Olaleye 8 IO Gbaja I I Latllewa I2 I4 13 Sabo 16 I5 Oyingbo I8 17 Iddo 19 Ebute-Ero 20 21 Obolende 22 23 EbuteElefun24 25 Fall 26 27 Alalyablagbo28 29 Teqo 30 3 5 7 9

Fig. 1. Locution

of markets

in Lagos metropolis

Mushin ALade (Somoiu Awolowo Lawonson Te]uoso Ademuylwa Ararom Agbo Maiu Jankara Faiomo Songross Egerton Boundary Alyele

1

Urhat~ Markets as Freight Nodev in the Lngos Merropolir

THE FREIGHT

OF LAGOS

175

MARKETS

Table 1 indicates the weight of freight in each market node. Ergerton with a total weight of 1,700,008 kg represents 42.65% of the total weight of freight handled in the markets. This is followed by Agbo Malu with a total of 1,028,500 kg representing 25.8% of the total. Falomo and Olaleye markets have the least with proportions of 0.02 and 0.08% respectively. The astronomical rise in the size of Ergerton market which ranked fourteenth in Sada and McNulty (1974), but ranks first in this study, can be explained first in terms of rapid growth and secondly in terms of the difference in the measure of size. While Sada and McNulty defined size in terms of number of stalls in the markets, the present study defines size in terms of the volume of freight handled by the markets. A combination of weight and value of commodities may afford a better basis for comparing the sizes of these markets, but it was not feasible to obtain the values of wares. Table I. Volume of freight handled in Lagos Markets Market 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

Volume

node

Ademuyiwa Agege Aiyele Alaiyabiagba Araromi Awolowo Boundary Cow Market (Agbo Ebute Elefun Ebute-Ero Ergerton Falomo Faji Gbaja Iddo Ipodo Jankara Kajola Latilewa Lawanson Musin Obalende Olaleye Oshodi Oyingbo Sabo Sandgross Somolu Tego Tejuoso Total

Malu)

of freight

54,344 72,286 20,460 11,806 24,341 24,849 413412.3 1,026,OOO 369,854 93,152 1,700.088 618.4 6,241 10,860 177,269 16,437 5,885.j 9,766.4 53,686 11,360.8 12,661.4 9.766.4 3,040.38 37,882.5 8,198 15.275.X 6,079.g 41,252.3 5,161.5 114.497 3.986,233.90

70 volume 1.36 1.81 0.51 0.30 0.61 0.62 1.04 25.8 9.28 2.34 42.65 0.02 0.16 0.27 4.49 0.41 0.15 0.24 1.35 0.32 0.32 0.24 0.08 0.94 0.21 0.38 0.15 1.03 0.13 2.88 100.0

Another criterion for comparing markets is the variety of commodities handled. This has been classifikd according to the SITC scheme: 00: Food and live animals. 10: Beverages and tobacco. 20: Crude materials inedible except fuel. 30: Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials. 40: Animals and vegetable oils and fats. 50: Chemicals. 60: Manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials.

176

A A. O,~um~qw

70: Machinery and transport equipment. 80: Miscellaneous manufactured articles. 90: Commodities and transactions not classified according to kind. Table 2 shows the distribution of freight types and their dominance, measured by their degree of presence. Throughout the thirty markets except Falomo, food and live animals are dominant. This is followed by miscellaneous manufactured articles including clothing, footwear, and travel-goods such as bags and similar articles, beverages and tobacco, mineral fuels, lubricant and related materials are either completely absent or their presence is not significant. When the spatial distribution of freight in terms of food and live animals is considered, only Falomo market does not supply them. Even within the markets that supply commodity (00), there are variations when the type of food item is considered. For example, Agbo Malu supplies live cattle to all other markets in the metropolis, Agege supplies beans and rice, while Iddo market supplies palm and groundnut products. This implies that although a combination of freight items may be available in any market, there is still specialisation in terms of commodity sold. T&r

2. The dominunt

freight

type in Lagos markets

Market 1 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

Adcmuyiwa Agege Aiyele Alaiyabiagba Araromi Awolowo Boundary Cow market (Agbo Ebute Elefun Ebute Ero Ergerton Falomo Faji Gbaja Iddo Ipodo Jankara Kajola Latilewa Lawanson Mushin Obalende Olaleye Oshodi Oyingbo Sabo Sandgross Somolu Tego Tejuoso

X, Freight -, Freight

00

node

Malu)

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

10

20

30

30

50

70

80

90

X -

X

-

X

X -

X X

X

X X X

X X X X X X

-

type sold in not less than 10% of the stalls. type not available or sold in less than 10% of the stalls in the market.

The various goods handled are transported mainly by road. Table 3 gives the mode of freight transport between and within the markets. Because of its flexibility, road is the most important mode of freight transport and it is responsible for 96.1% of the total. Rail is surprisingly very little used, considering the fact that rail traverses such important markets as Agege, Ipodo, Mushin, Oyingbo and Iddo which altogether represents about one-sixth of the total markets in the metropolis. The use of rail for intra-urban commodity

Urhnn Markets

rrs Freight Nodes in the Lagos Metropolis

Table 3. Mode of freight

Mode of transport

transport

Volume in kg

Road Rail Water

3.380.953.17 147,568.75 7.712.00

Total

3.986,233.92

177

Proportionate volume (o/o) .~~. ~ 96.10 3.70 0.19 99.99

movement in Lagos will no doubt help to reduce the incessant traffic congestion in this city. A further breakdown of the dominant road transport by carrier indicates that the most frequently used vehicles are lorries. These lorries called “Aje-1gboro” are old lorries (sometimes more than 10 years in operation) which cannot operate long distance inter-urban routes and are now used within the city, so that they can be easily attended to by local mechanics and can yield some income for their owners. Head porterage and handpushed carts prevail for short-distance transfers within markets and between adjacent markets. FREIGHT

DEFINITION

OF MARKET

STRUCTURE

Markets as central place functions have been classified mainly on the basis of the size of their sales and the extent of their service areas. More rigorous techniques which have been used for the ordering of nodes can be applied to markets. For example Goddard (1970) used Factor Analysis for the analysis of taxi flow pattern in central London; Brown and Golleridge (1970), and Brown and Holmes (1971) used functional distance technique to identify nodal hierarchies while Nystuen and Dacey (1961), also assuming a theoretical hierarchy of regions used the Graph Theoretic concept to identify nodal regions. In a similar way the inter-market freight flows in metropolitan Lagos can be structured so that dominant and satellite markets in terms of freight shipment can be identified. The structuring process in this paper is approached using the Nystuen and Dacey’s Graph Theoretic formulations. To do this, the origin-destination matrix of inter-market freight movement in Lagos was prepared. The entries of the 30 x 30 matrix are the volume of freight moved between the markets. The largest flows between pairs of markets were obtained. A collection of these largest flows together defines a network of orientation among the markets. The order of the row totals reflects the relative significance of the nodes as shipping points while the order of the column totals shows their significance as collecting points. The basic concepts of dominance, transitivity and acyclic properties of the Graph Theoretic technique were then applied to the matrix. Using the concept of dominance, Ergerton was found to be dominant while Agbo Malu, Boundary, Ipodo, Musin, and Iddo are subordinate to Ergerton. By the transitivity property, Agege and Sabo were found to be subordinate to Ipodo and Iddo respectively. But a node is not the subordinate of any of its subordinates. This defines the acyclic property of the graph theory, a basic feature of which is the hierarchical distribution of nodes. This helps to order the markets into hierarchies, and Ergerton stands in the position of a first order. Using this procedure, the dominance of Obalende over Faji and Lawanson, and the dominance of Tejuoso over Araromi, Aiyele, and Alaiyabiagba became apparent. Figure 2 shows the map of nodal structure and the inset graph helps to identify the relationship of the first three sets of markets in order of importance of interaction.

Graph

of the Nodal

Structure

1 Agege

2 lpodo

3 Oshodi

4 Mushin

5 Ka~ola

6 Alade

7 Olaleye

8 Awolowo

9 Gbala

(Somolt

10 Lawanson

11 Latilewa

12 Tejuoso

13 Sabo

14 Ademuyiwa

15 Oyingbo

16 Araromi

17 lddo

18 Agbomalu

19 Ebute-Ero

20 Jankara

21 Obalende

22

23

Ebute

Elefun

Falomo

24 Sangross

25 Fall

26

Egerton

27 Alalyabiagba

28

Boundary

29 Tego

30 Aiyele

0

More

dominant

.)

Dominant

.

Other

markets

markets

markets

Roads

ATLANTIC

L

OCEAN

0 ‘p

20 000

Feet

Fig. 2. Map of nodal structure of markets.

PLANNING

IMPLICATIONS

The present study has various planning implications. The volume of freight of a market node determines the space requirement for the marketing functions. There is a tendency for successive higher order nodes to increasingly attract freight from, and to increase their areas of influence at the expense of, the lower order node. Urban redevelopment around the areas of dominant centres should therefore permit the extension of such markets. Successful markets tend to expand at the expense of other land-uses whereby residential accommodation for example could be consequently changed to warehousing and marketing landuses. Urban planning can deliberately assist this process of land-use conversion by zonal development which approves adaptable structures. The first order - or dominant markets handling a lot of freight necessarily require substantial transport infrastructure and access facilities. Parking spaces have to be provided adjacent to such markets and the routes to the markets have to be such that they can accommodate an increasing volume of freight. This requires phased expansion of access routes if adequate land reservation is made in master plans. Unfortunately land allocation for parking space and access routes is usually inadequate and cannot cope with the growth in traffic.

Urban

Markets

as Freight

Nodes

in the Lagos

179

Metropolis

Moreover, such open spaces are the first to be taken over in the process of landuse conversion, as a result of the success and growth of dominant markets. The provision of suitable storage facilities, especially for perishable goods may reduce the transfer functions at markets. A negative consequence of increase in freight handled in markets is the accumulation of garbage and spoilt goods which urban administration in Nigeria are unable to cope with. This necessarily requires some type of transport organisation with its special vehicles, operational schedules and demand on the road space.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Brown,

L.A. and Golleridgc.

46. 472-485,

1970.

and Holmes,

Brown.

L.A.

Journal

of Regional

Chinitz,

B., Freight

Goddard, London”, Nystuen, Association.

J.B.,

Institute

regions

of British

Ogunsanya,

A.A..

16A, 2X9-300.

Ogunsanya, Geographical

“Urban

Journal,

distance

of functional J.. “The delimitation 11, No. 1. pp. 57-72, 1971. Howard

within

Geographers,

J. and Dacey. M.F., “A graph Vol. 7, pp. 29-42, 1961. A.A..

functional

and the Metropolis.

“Functional

Ogunsanya. Geographical

Ogunsanya.

Science

“Migration,

freight

No. 49. pp.

regions Press,

the city centre:

theory

transport

University

and the urban

hierarchy”,

and hierarchies

Massachussetts,

a study by Factor

161-182,

interpretation

by functional

Geography

distance”.

1960.

Analysis

of taxi flow in Central

1970.

of nodal regions”,

in a developing

Economic

economy:

Papers

of theRegional

the case of Lagos,

Nigeria”.

Science Nigerian

24, 1981.

“Spatial

pattern

of urban

freight

transport

in Lagos

metropolis”,

Transportation

Research

1982.

A.A.,

“The

Journal

A.A..

contribution

of freight

vehicles

to delay

problems

in Lagos

metropolis”,

Nigerian

26, 1983.

“Estimating

freight

generation

and attraction”.

Transportation

Research.

Forthcoming.

Sada. P.O. and McNulty. “Periodic markets in a metropolitan environment: Lagos. Nigeria”. Paper presented at the Association of American Geographers’ Annual Meeting. Kansas City 23-26 April 1972.