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Although provision of transport services often de-emphasises the gender dis-aggregation, access to contemporary mode of transport seems to pose constraints on the physical mobility of women within the cities in Nigeria. The use of motorcycle as important means of public transport shows greater proportion of the female urban trip makers are becoming disadvantaged. With many more people finding it difficult to maintain their vehicles and other means of private transportation, it is argued that the use of motorcycles would further compounds the mobility and accessibility problems of women in the cities. The paper reveals that females frequently use motorcycle mode for long and short-distanced trips more than males and that the use of motorcycle has significant effect on the pattern of dressing of women. More importantly, two of every three passengers that have motorcycle accidents are women. The paper suggests sustainable public transport systems that cater for all social groups. economic characteristics of the passengers of motorcycle as public transport mode in the four (4)selected cities. In addition, data were obtained along gender lines on frequency of trips and rate of accident, reasons for using motorcycle, effect of the use of motorcycle on mode of dressing and overall impact of the use of motorcycle in achieving basic objectives of trip generation. The study is based on household survey in four major intermediate cities in Nigeria between 1999 and 2000. 3600 respondents in the four (4) cities were sampled using the questionnaire as the instrument of survey. About seventy percent of the respondents indicated that they depend on motorcycle as means of urban public transport for feeder trips to other public transport services or as a dominant public transport service. The city selected are Abeokuta (in the southwest, having a population of about 400,000, 1999 estimate); Ijebu-Ode (also in southwest, population 166,000), Abuja, the federal capital (located in the central part of the country, population of 650,000) and Jos (in the north central part of Nigeria, population 800,030). The choice of the cities was based on fact that they are intermediate, defined as having population of between 100,000 and 1million people and have significant proportion of urban trips made by motorcycle (Ogunsanya & Galatima 1993; Oyesiku 2001). 3 EMERGENCE OF MOTORCYCLE AS PUBLIC TRANSPORT MODE The global economic recession and the fall-out of the structural adjustment programme between 1987 and 1993 in Nigeria have greatly affected the purchasing power of the government and the populace to replace existing public transport fleets of buses and taxis.. By the late 1980s the transportation sector of the economy began to feel the impact of the steady drop in the supply of transport services and the mobility problems started assuming a crisis dimension. Adeniji (1987) stress that by mid 1980s most of the publicly owned public transport companies were operating at a loss and far below capacity, partly because many of the buses have broken down and spare-parts were often short in supply. In addition to these were problems of revenue leakage, particularly through misappropriation of funds, over-staffing, undue government interference and poor monitoring and evaluating the performance of government initiated public transport agencies (World Bank 1990). Oyesiku (1996) noted that in spite of the federal and state governments huge investment in public transport services provision, there are still shortage and in-adequacies of public transport services compared to the surging demand in many urban centres. As a result of these inadequacies of government operated and controlled public transport companies there emerged other modes of public transportation among which are the motorcycle and tricycle (autorickshaw). The use of motorcycle for public transport is not a new commercial public transport system in Nigeria. It has being the common mode of inter-city transportation in most riverine areas of the country. In the dispersed settlements of eastern states, the use of motorcycle as a mode of transportation cannot be waived-off simply because of it's immeasurable role in the inter-rural and rural-urban movement or transport of goods, people as well as commercial services. Invariably, motorcycles have now invaded the suburbs and inner cities, towns and local areas of the country as big commercial transport business (Fasakin 2001). Despite the general acceptability of the use of motorcycle as a mode of transport in all cities, the paratransit public transport system is still being viewed as a temporary phenomenon. It has equally not been receiving attention in studies and analyses by many researchers in generally and government urban transport management programmes in particular. This lack of interest over-shadows the un-perceptible observation of distinct behavioural differences in the use of motorcycle as a mode of travel by both gender. Before the discussion on this distinct differences, it is important to highlight the major reasons for the emergence of the motorcycles as urban public transportation service. Motorcycle public transport in Nigeria, as in many West-African states, has come to stay in the cities and has gradually become a part of the public transportation system. This is due to: (i) Inadequacy and ineffectiveness of the conventional modes of transportation such as the buses and taxis, and ferry and train in very few cities. The overland modes have been unable to provide a door to door services, more so that there were no defined bus stops and specific public transport routes. (ii) Larger proportions of the urban road network are unpaved, while as much as sixty percent of the paved roads are in poor condition (Torres Martinez 2001). This situation invariably makes it difficult for commercial motorists link several routes and access to many activities areas. Whereas, motorcycle operators can easily manoeuvre the bad roads.
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