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Introduction

Welcome to this week's lesson, our dear kids and lovely parents. Last week, I talked about the meaning of transportation, forms of transportation which includes traditional transportation and modern transportation. The different types of transportation under tranditional and modern transportation were listed and discussed.

Today, we will be looking at the problems of modern transportation and before that let's quickly have a look at benefits of transportation.

Benefits of Transportation

There is a lot of benefit to be derived from transportation all over the world.

These benefits are:

1. Mobility Advantage: The advent of modern means of transport has enhanced faster and easier movement of man and goods more than the means used in the olden days e.g. trekking animals.

2. Economic Development: The movement of raw materials to factories and finished goods and services to consumers is done through transport. This has facilitated economic development and improved people's standard of living.

3. Aids to Trade: Modern transport especially the use of aeroplanes and ships has facilitated trade among countries of the world. Both import and export are now made easier, faster and move economically.

4. Political Development: Political activities are made possible with transport system. For instance, at the local government level, the Chairman will have to move closer to people to know their needs. He needs to use one of the modern forms of transportation to achieve this objective. To implement decisions reached, means of transport are needed.

5. Socio-Cultural Development: The interaction between people from different places is facilitated by transportation system. Material and non-material cultures are transferred from one cultural group to another when they come in contact with each other. Good transportation network helps to achieve this cultural diffusion.

6. Satisfaction of Human Needs: A lot of human needs are met through transportation. A sick person can easily get to hospital for treatment, students can quickly get to school, goods that are not produced in a particular place are easily made available, all these are possible by modern means of transport.

Problems of Modern Transportation

There is a number of problems associated with modern means of transportation all over the world.

These problems are:

1. Expensive: Modern transportation requires a lot of money. To acquire and maintain the means of transport or to construct roads, ports and airports needs a lot of money.

2. Accident: Accidents are common in modern transportation. A lot of lives and properties are usually lost or damaged when accidents occur through these means of transport.

3. Inadequate Facilities: It is discovered that the facilities required to keep transportation functional are not enough for the users. For instance countries in thier rural areas do not have enough motorable roads, railways, seaports and airports in Nigeria.

4. Inadequate Maintenance: Most of the developing countries in Africa especially, do not adequately take good care of the roads, railways and ports they have built. This hampers modern transportation in such countries.

5. Rules and Regulations: The use of modern means of transport requires a lot of rules and regulations. These are called traffic rules which people hardly keep to. Lack of respect for the rules often causes road transport problems.

6. Traffic Congestion: Many a while, people spend several hours on the way before they get to where they are going because of traffic jam on our roads. This is often caused by bad roads or disobedient road users.

7. Corrupt Practices: Most of the means of transportation in our country are not functioning as expected. This is partly due to corrupt practices, fraud and embezzlement by some government officials. If the spate of corruption continues, the commercial vehicles owned by government will not be in good shape or serve their purpose.

Solutions to the Problems of Modern Transport

1. Proper Maintenance of Facilities: If our road networks, railways, seaports, airports, etc are taken good care of, the problem of transport in the country will be reduced greatly.

2. Good Maintenance of the Means of Transport: Solution is not only in acquiring the means of transport such as vehicles, trains or ships but proper attention from private owners and the government should be given to them. The engines and the parts of these means of transport should be serviced properly and timely.

3. Subsidising Cost of Transportation: Government can come to the aid of our transporters by giving soft loans to them or subsidising the cost of acquiring the means of transport.

4. Direct Investment: Government should know that transport business is a capital intensive one. It therefore requires the direct setting aside of money by the government to purchase and maintain all these means of transportation. This will complement the efforts of private individual transporters in the country.

5. Proper Professional Training: The various categories of workers in the transport sector need to be trained. The training could be in the form of seminars, talks, workshops, on how the means of transport should be maintained and how they should do their job professionally, so as to prevent monetary losses and accidents.

6. Construction of More Roads: Since our population is increasing, the available means of transport are just not adequate. This is why many people now buy their own cars for use on the road thereby causing traffic. Government should therefore help to build more road networks to serve us more efficiently.

7. Railway as Alternative: Road users are to be encouraged to use railways as an alternative to roads. This would help reduce traffic congestion on the roads. Also, the roads would be regularly maintained, while heavy goods would be carried by trains.

8. Government Regulations: There should be proper regulation of transport in Nigeria. For example government should fix the fees and levies for transport operators by air and road so passengers can travel in safety. So also is inter-state road transport, especially between major capital cities.

Homework Task

1. What are the benefits of transportation?
2. List and explain 4 problems of modern transportation
3. Mention and explain the solutions to the problem of modern transportation.

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