THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION ON ADJACENT COMMUNITIES: THE CASE OF EAST-WEST ROUTE OF THE ADDIS ABABA LIGHT RAIL TRANSIT
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Date
2019-06
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EiABC
Abstract
The Addis Ababa Light Rail Transit system is the first modern mass transit system for Ethiopia
as well as for Sub Saharan Africa. Although, the Addis Ababa LRT lines/ stations thought to
bring either positive or negative or both social-economic impacts on the adjacent communities,
after it has been launched there was/were no research done focusing on the socio-economic
impacts the LRT on the adjacent community. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess
the socio-economic impacts of the light rail transit line/stations on the community.
To conduct the research, about six LRT stations along the East-West LRT line from Coca-Cola
to Ayat were selected by bypassing 3 LRT stations to embrace the Coca-Cola LRT station
which is service dominate area, Megenagna the active commercial area and Ayat the residential
dominate area since the study focus on the adjacent residential, commercial and social services.
Then, random data collection methods were used to collect the data from the community around
each LRT stations. Questionnaire surveys, interview and observations methods were used to
collect data. There were 720 respondents for the questionnaires and 20 people for an interview
to consolidate the quantitative data. Then, the descriptive statistics and spatial analysis methods
were administered for data analysis. Using the above approaches, the social and economic
impact of the LRT on community in residential, commercial and social service were analyzed.
As the result of this, the social and economic impact of the LRT on adjacent community in
residential, commercial and social service were analyzed separately using the social and
economic impact indicators of the LRT. The community living in the residential areas uses the
LRT the most for their trip purpose than the rest of the other adjacent land uses, while followed
by the community in the social service, and the least percentage of the adjacent community
were those in social services. The LRT has brought both positive and negative socio-economic
impacts on the adjacent communities having varied frequency of responses from family to
family as well as from station to station. The positive impacts of the LRT for the adjacent
community were the transport cost reduction, travel time reduction, increasing volume of
retailers around the LRT stations, increasing the volume of the renters in the communities,
means of transportations for the community and etc. In contrast to this, the negative impacts
of the LRT were segregation of the adjacent communities around the LRT, reduction of the
customers from some business activities, long walking distance to access the opposite side of
the LRT, inconvenience of the stations for elders and those in need, problems of turning around
the car when driving and etc. Eventually the mitigation methods of the negative effects of the
LRT on community has been recommended as: the socio-economic impact of the light rail
transit on the existing community should be studied in detail before the implementation; the
light rail transit should be built underground or on the existing level of the public street to
reduce the socio-economic disturbance of the adjacent community; the LRT station distances
and facilities should be considered the elders and those in need and the spacing between the
distance of the pedestrian cross should be also considered to minimize the negative impact of
the LRT on social interaction of the adjacent communities living in the opposite side of the
LRT.
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Description
A thesis submitted to the school of graduate studies of the Addis AbabaUniversity,Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development(EiABC), in partial fulfilment for master’s degree in Urban Planning
Keywords
Light, Rail Transit (LRT), Socio-economic impact, Adjacent community