Gender Perspective on Transport Availability in Dutse, Jigawa State, Nigeria

There are few studies on transport availability in small towns and cities of Nigeria of which Dutse is one. Consequently, the objective of this paper is to investigate gender perspective on transport availability in Dutse, Jigawa State, Nigeria using appropriate methods of administering using 400 structured questionnaires across the city. The data obtained show that the level of education of the respondents is diverse ranging from 64.5% of male and 35.5% female. The 20–24 age group have the highest respondents with 20.5% and the lowest is the 45–49 age groups with 1.5% of total respondents. The highest level of education attained by the total respondents is Secondary School Education with 29% and those with Trade Certificate are the lowest at 1.75%. Additionally, 7.25% of the respondents do not have any form of formal education. Socio-economic indices show that 33% of the respondents are students, 29.75% are self-employed, and 19.25% are employed with the lowest percentage being the retirees at 3.25%. This study found out that the public transport is not ideal, and commuters, irrespective of their gender, have no option but to use the available ones. Secondly, the utilisation of bus stops (if they exist) is low or non-existent, and there are no buses to patronise the stops. Thirdly, the available public transport system is not readily available for travellers when they need them making them to postpone their trips or not do it altogether which leads to losing whatever personal socio-economic development the traveller was pursuing. Lastly, through the analysis of variance of the male and female responses, there is no significant difference to the responses of the two groups. Based on these findings, this study is recommending the expansion of this study to cover other social groups.