Abstract
Several studies have been documented on travel behaviour and mobility patterns. Recently telecommunications have been adopted and implemented to influence and transform behaviour and mobility pattern of commuters. There has also been a major debate on the impact of telecommunications and travel, while some subscribe to the complementing effect of technologies on travel, others believe in the substitution or trip generation effect. Consequently, this study explored the effect of telecommunication on trip making in the rural area of Akure North Local Government Area, Nigeria. Systematic sampling technique was used to survey 4 percent representing 495 household heads of a total 12,365 registered buildings by means of questionnaire administration. However, 339 copies of the questionnaire were retrieved and found usable for analysis. This accounts for 72.9% response rate. The study found 1.36 as average number of respondents’ trips while 46.4% of the respondents normally travel by non-motorised means of transport. The Global System of Mobile Communication (GSM) serves as frequent means of telecommunication for 64.3% of the respondents. However, most of the respondents being 92.9% do not use social media platforms of telecommunication. The study further revealed that the complementing effect of telecommunication was significant. The correlation coefficient (R) for the relationship between telecommunication usage and complemented trips equals 0.409 significant at p=0.000. The study concluded that the use of telecommunication go beyond call linkages as there are other purposes served by telecommunication and recommends that telecommunication facilities should be provided and encouraged as an alternative to physical movement by the rural dwellers to avoid the inherent transport problems in the cities and urban centres.