BACKGROUND OF STUDY
All over the world traffic congestion is a common phenomenon but the amount of efforts put into managing it differs with climes and this goes a long way in determining its effect on the socio-economic well being of societies. Traffic congestion occurs as a result of continuous increase in road space utilization by vehicles and it is characterized by lower speeds, longer vehicle queues and increased journey time. In Lagos and in some other major Nigerian cities, traffic jam, which is an extreme case of traffic congestion whereby vehicles are fully stopped for a length of time before moving again, is more common. Shopade (2010) opines that Traffic congestion or traffic jam as the case may be is a classic demand and supply problem which may be solved by either increasing road capacity (supply) or reducing traffic (demand). Although, both approaches have been successfully used to tackle congestion for decades, there are still ongoing arguments in professional circles on which approach is better. However, I argue that different situations require unique solutions which may include the application of either one of the two approaches or the application of both approaches in varied degrees in order to come up with a solution which optimizes road space utilization at the most economical cost. This, I posit, is the ultimate goal of traffic management duty and it is achievable. Traffic congestion is considered one of the main urban transportation problems with an estimated cost of about $100 billion annually in the US and comparable costs in other countries (Victoria Transport Policy Institute, 2005). Studies conducted by Shrank and