A SOCIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE DETERMINANT FACTORS AND THE EFFECTS OF CHILD STREET HAWKING IN NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

 

INTRODUCTION

• Background to the Study

Man, nations, regions and the world would be severely limited in development without transportation, which is a key factor for physical and economic growth (Oyesiku, 2002). Transportation systems and land use are interdependent. Indeed findings of earlier studies indicate compelling and consistent connections amongst them (Ewing and Cervero, 2001; Polzin, 2004). According to Bailey, Mokhtarian, and Littlel (2008), transportation route is part of distinct development pattern or road network and mostly described by regular street patterns as an indispensable factor of human existence, development and civilization. The route network coupled with increased transport investment result in changed levels of accessibility reflected through Cost Benefit Analysis, savings in travel time, and other benefits. These benefits are noticeable in increased catchment areas for services and facilities like shops, schools, offices, banks, and leisure activities.

Road networks are observed in terms of its components of accessibility, connectivity, traffic density, level of service, compactness, and density of particular roads. Level of service is a measure by which the quality of service on transportation devices or infrastructure is determined, and it is a holistic approach considering several factors regarded as measures of traffic density and congestion rather than overall speed of the journey (Mannering, Walter, and Scott, 2004).

Access to major roads provides relative advantages consequent upon which commercial users locate to enjoy the advantages. Modern businesses, industries, trades and general activities depend on transport and transport infrastructure, with movement of goods and services from place to place becoming vital and inseparable aspects of global and urban economic survival. Developments of various transportation modes have become pivotal to physical and economic developments. Such modes include human porterage, railways, ropeways and cableways, pipelines, inland waterways, sea, air, and roads (Said and Shah, 2008).

According to Oyesiku (2002), urbanization in Nigeria has a long history in its growth and development. Extensive development being a feature of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, with concentration of economic and administrative decision-making in Lagos, Ibadan, Kaduna, Jos, and Enugu, and high degree of specialization and larger population associated with greater specialization of goods and services. Wyatt (1997) states that urban areas have tendency to develop at nodal points in transport network and places with good road network will possess relative advantage over locations having poor network. Urban locations with such relative advantage are found where different transport routes converge with high degree of compactness, connectivity, density, length and accessibility exhibited within the intra- and inter- urban road networks.

Ikeja is a typical example in the history of growth and development of cities in Nigeria. The city became capital of Lagos State in 1976 with improved road networks developed to cater for increase in concentration of pedestrian and vehicular movements. Similarly, commercial activities like banking, retail/wholesale businesses, and professional services congregated to take advantage of nearness to seat of governance. Concentration of activities attracted consumers and ancillary service providers. This partly caused increase in demand for commercial space and its concomitant effects on commercial property values along arterial roads in the metropolis.

The present position concerning commercial properties in Ikeja is that majority are located along arterial roads that deliver much of the vehicular and pedestrian movements. There have been increases in rental values along the individual arterial roads although not at equal rates. It is against this background that this research analyzed the arterial roads, determined the levels of accessibility, connectivity, traffic density of the individual arterial roads, examined the pattern of commercial property values and the relationship between the explanatory variables of the road network in Ikej a Nigeria.

• Statement of the Research Problem

The relationship between transportation and urban property values has been the focus of many studies (for example, Dewees, 1976; Damm et al, 1980; Wolf, 1992; Singh, 2005). Some of the earlier studies returned positive relationship between transport and property values while others showed negative relationship. For instance, in a study on the relationship between rail travel cost and residential property values, a replacement of streetcar with subway increased site rent at a location that is perpendicular to the facility within a one-third mile walk to the station (Dewees, 1976); and there was positive influence of permanent transportation improvements on land values (Wolf, 1992). It was established that there was statistically significant relationship between distance of a parcel of land to the nearest Metro station and land price (Damm, Lerner-Lam, and Young, 1980), while there was evidence that residential property prices decrease immediately around the transport investment or station value uplift through changes in land values (Singh, 2005).

The urban areas all over the world offer a number of advantages in terms of concentration of people followed by demand for commercial properties and transportation. Ikeja is a classical example of a city that has developed rapidly since 1976 when it became the Lagos State capital. Construction of roads increased substantially with the opening up of residential precincts that also benefitted from increasing demand for lettable spaces in commercial properties. Many private companies, retail stores, commercial banks aggregate in the metropolis to take advantage of opportunities afforded by locations near the seat of governance thus attracting complimentary services. This led to high concentration of vehicular and pedestrian movements especially along the access roads.

The roads exhibit a number of nodes and linkages to form networks of both arterial and minor routes along which commercial properties locate. Commercial users displaced residential users, causing sites to be at highest and best uses with concomitant increases in the values of commercial properties. Accessibility within the road network is affected by the compact nature of various routes that sometimes impede volume of traffic. The road network is made up of nodal points and links that determine the degree of connectivity and accessibility in the network.

A number of factors affect values of properties. These factors may be intrinsic or extrinsic. The extrinsic factors include increase in demand for lettable space, location, condition of adjoining properties, nearness to park and leisure, local and national economic conditions. External factors are due to natural characteristics of the property which affect the city where the property is located. Intrinsic factors arise from within the nature of the property itself and relate to the physical attributes, including size of room, state of repair, decoration, and facilities. Other attributes that increase or decrease the amount that users are willing and able to pay in an open market transaction include physical characteristics of the structure, change in taste and demand, effect of adjacent activities, economic activities, inflation, and changes in legislation. The demand for commercial properties itself is affected by changes in population, planning and development schemes, legislation, and availability of good road networks (Hendon, 1971; William, Davies, and Johnson, 1980; Richmond, 1982; Millington, 1982; Olayiwola, Adeleye and Oduwaye, 2006).

Earlier theorists (Burgess, 1925; Hoyt, 1939; Harris and Ullman, 1951; Lean and Goodall, 1977) generally believe that sites adjacent to main transport routes have relative advantages over those located some distance away, and other sites located at route intersections possess relative advantage with greater advantages belonging to sites located at focus of transport system. These advantages are determined in relation to accessibility, which has different characteristics in relation to individual sites thus differentiating between sites in terms of accessibility advantages.

Many of the aforementioned studies emphasized the effects of the factors on values of properties generally with little consideration given to road network pattern and its effects on values of commercial properties. Possible relationships between road networks, location attribute, demand and supply, and accessibility and commercial property values have therefore elicited the interest of the researcher in this direction. The relationship cannot be determined without due consideration given to the explanatory variables on one hand and commercial property values on the other. The use of roads leads to a study of urban areas in relation to land uses, especially commercial properties. It is against this background that this study was conceived.

• Research Questions

1. What are the relationships between commercial property values and arterial road network in the presence or absence of other explanatory variables?
2. What are the individual contributions of the explanatory variables to variability in commercial property values?
3. What are the models to explain and predict the relationship between the explanatory variables and commercial property values?

• Aim and Objectives of the Research

1. Determine the relationships between commercial property values and road network, in the presence or absence of other variables, in the study area;
2. Determine the contributions of individual explanatory variables to variability in commercial property values in the study area;
3. Derive models for predicting variability in commercial property values in relation to the explanatory variables.

• Scope of the Study

Preliminary study revealed that there are five types of commercial properties in the study area. These are retail shop premises, banking spaces, office properties, warehouses, and non-specific commercial properties. In respect of this research, focus was on offices, shops, banking spaces and other types of commercial users along the arterial routes to the exclusion of residential, industrial, and non-specific type of commercial properties.

Due to the magnitude, terrain and complex nature of Lagos State roads, the study was limited to Ikeja intra-city roads. Ikeja is the predominant component of Ikeja Local Government, which itself is one of four zones identified within the larger Lagos metropolis. The four zones (Lagos Island, Apapa, Lagos Mainland, and Ikeja) represent commercial hubs of Lagos metropolis, which as revealed by preliminary observation, shows activity areas where employment, commercial, transportation terminals, and other businesses are concentrated (Oni, 2008).

Road network analysis was carried out to determine the levels of accessibility and connectivity of nodal points as well as road and traffic densities in the hope of predicting commercial property values along each arterial road. In doing so, only the arterial roads identified as commercial axes in the study area were the focus of the research to the exclusion of secondary connector roads, while the relationship between arterial roads and commercial properties in the study area were examined.

Many factors have dictated the choice of Ikeja. First, it is the capital of Lagos State of Nigeria and a socially heterogeneous city with variety of local, state and federal government roads. Second, the property market in the study area is well developed and it is possible to identify and analyze variations. Comprehensive data are available on commercial property values in Ikeja, which is one of the few cities in Nigeria offering opportunity for comprehensive survey of its commercial properties, with enlightened occupiers of commercial premises thereby making data collection possible. Third, a number of property magazines are in circulation in the city where professional Estate Surveyors and Valuers advertise commercial properties available for sale or letting. This makes the property market very active and up-to-date with stakeholders, prospective tenants, property owners, and investors versatile and knowledgeable about the goings-on in the market. Fourth, judging from what is applicable in Nigeria, the Ikeja road network is one of the most complex in terms of linkages, human and vehicular movements with availability of computerized and up- to-date data and satellite images of the road network.

• Limitations of the Study

The study focused on analysis of arterial roads and commercial property values in Ikeja. It did not attempt to investigate the structural stability of the arterial road network or assess the methods and accuracy of methods adopted by respondents in fixing the values of commercial properties in the study area. It simply analyzed accessibility, connectivity, arterial road network, distance to most central place in the study area, demand and supply of commercial properties in relation to commercial property values in the study area. Graph theoretic technique was used to analyze the arterial road network while opinions of Estate Surveyors and Valuers practicing in the study area were relied upon. The accuracy, or otherwise, of such opinions although not in doubt was not investigated.

Some challenges were encountered during the study. By virtue of the busy nature of Estate Surveying and Valuation practitioners and “carefulness” of occupiers of the sampled commercial properties, there was considerable reluctance on their parts to volunteer information. Some of the respondents, especially Estate Surveyors and Valuers, delayed in completing the questionnaires and it took personal influence of the researcher (as their colleague) and assistance of the Lagos State Branch Chairman of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers to obtain their eventual impressive responses. In addition, the researcher took time to allay the fears of Occupiers by educating them about the essence of the research, that it would in no way expose them to imposition of levies or charges or any liability to the Lagos State Government.

The populations of commercial properties and occupiers in the study area were indeterminate. The study population was too large and there was no census available to ascertain them thereby making determination of their number somewhat tasking. The researcher however found a way out of the challenge by using a form of sampling based on estimated population of occupiers and adopting direct observation of the sampled properties to determine the average number of occupiers. These limitations however neither affected the quality of data collected nor the conclusions drawn from it.

The various opinions of Estate Surveyors and Valuers were relied upon, in some cases, to the exclusion of those of occupiers especially in respect of questions that required a form of professional opinion. This was consequent upon the findings from the pilot tests earlier conducted which showed that the occupiers found such questions too technical. Hence, questions like rating of the roads in the study area in terms of accessibility, supply and demand of commercial properties were subsequently limited to the Estate Surveyors and Valuers.

• The Study Area

Ikeja city is a large component of the Lagos metropolis. Lagos itself is the largest city in Nigeria, located at 6°34’60”N, 3°19’59”E along the West African coast and was the capital city of the country before it was replaced with Abuja on 12^th December, 1991. However, Lagos remains the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria. The city is a typical example in the history of growth and development of urban areas in Nigeria. The Western Region administered the city along with Agege, Mushin, Ikorodu, Epe, and Badagry until Lagos State took off as an administrative entity, and in 1976 Ikeja replaced Lagos Island as the capital of Lagos State; consequently, more roads were constructed.

In the general context, Lagos State is made up of twenty local government council areas out of which sixteen form the metropolitan Lagos and Ikeja Local Government area is one of them. Ikeja is both the administrative capital and Headquarters of Ikeja Local Government Council Area of Lagos State. Ikeja Local Government Council Area is located in the north-central part sharing boundaries with Ifako-Ijaiye, Agege, and Alimosho Local Government Council Areas in the western perimeter; Kosofe, and Mushin Local Government Council Areas in the eastern side, while Oshodi-Isolo Local Government Council Area forms the boundary in the southern part and Ogun State in the north as shown in Fig. 1.1

Described in terms of its operational structures, Ikeja is divided into seven sectors. Sector One lies in the north-central part of the metropolis and consists mainly of residential neighbourhoods with occasional commercial users of banks and service offices, and Isheri-Agege Road is the only arterial road traversing the Sector. Sector Two is of predominantly industrial concerns around WEMPCO, ACME and Lateef Jakande Roads; Sector Three is almost centrally located in the study area and consists of Oba Akran Avenue, Adeniyi Jones, Aromire Avenue, and Obafemi Awolowo Way that serve as demarcation between Sectors Three and Five. The sector is predominantly residential interspersed by few industrial concerns and commercial outfits that over the years have displaced residential users along the arterial roads.

Sector Four lies in the eastern part of the study area served by Secretariat Road, Ikosi Road, Oregun Road, 7-up Road and bounded by Lagos/Ibadan Expressway and Ikorodu Road. Sector Five, which is bounded, by Sectors Three, Four and Six consists of Allen Avenue, Opebi Road, Ola Ayeni Street, Toyin Street, Olowu Street, Kodesho Street, Simbiat Abiola Road, Otigba Street and Opebi Link-Road. The sector is characterized by concentration of commercial properties and represents the main commercial sector of the study area (Fig. 1.2).

Also from Fig. 1.2, Sector Six occupies the southern part of the study area and consists of Government Residential Area (G.R.A), and institutional properties (Army Barracks, Police Barracks, High and Magistrate Courts, Lagos State Administrative Centre, Passport Office and Nigeria Telecommunication Limited). Properties along the major roads in the Sector have undergone a change from residential to commercial use. Roads within the Sector include Mobolaji Bank-Anthony Way, Adekunle Fajuyi Way, Isaac John Street, Oba Akinjobi Street; while Sector Seven which lies at the western part consists of Murtala Muhammed International Airport.

 

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