Optimal Alternate Path Model for Road Transportation Routing System Using a Web-Enabled Geographic Information System

Background:Road transportation is central to everyday life, but is often hampered by traffic congestion in developing countries. This paper proposes a routing system that promises to reduce traffic congestion on the road by constantly suggesting the optimal alternate routes to motorists while considering the condition of the road segments. Materials and Methods:The optimal alternate route is computed by the system based on the digitized map and the geographic information system of the city that are stored in the database. Secondary data for the research was obtained from Lagos state ministry of transportation. Results:The experimental results show that out of every 10 samples, the proposed approach differs only in two cases. On inspecting each case, it was observed that the approach reported in this work differs from the existing approach whenever there is a bad road segment. The consideration of the bad segment by the reported approach accounts for the optimal routing. It was also observed that the computational time for determining the shortest route was much lower using the proposed approach. Conclusion: The results show that computation based on shortest distance alone does not guarantee fastest arrivals. Parameters such as state of the road and road congestion contribute immensely.