Analysis of the Spatial Accessibility of Addis Ababa’s Light Rail Transit: The Case of East–West Corridor

In this paper, spatial and statistical analysis methods were integrated to analyze the spatial accessibility, user population, and coverage of the Light Rail Transit of Addis Ababa. Stations were found to be the least accessible due to five types of land use and road network-related causes: government and social institutions with large area compounds, low road network density, open spaces devoid of road network, natural barriers such as water courses and large area public squares. The study explicitly revealed stations with overlaps in their service areas as well as stations having neighborhoods which are uncovered with the current service areas, i.e., 4.7 km2 and 19.9 km2 uncovered areas are found within walking distances of 1200–1500 m and 1500–2000 m, respectively; nonetheless, stations have fairly adequate coverage within 400 m and 800 m walking distance. Depending on the causes, stations were grouped into three categories. Service area-based determination of potential users is estimated to be 888,502, while the total number of the daily average actual users is around 67,624. Generally an increase in the accessible population is associated with an increase in the service area coverage. However, the population accessibility and service area coverage do not directly imply more number of actual users. Stations with large overlap of service area have reduced number of actual users due to the fact that the accessible population is divided between shared stations. Therefore, unnecessary large service area overlap is a wastage that does not contribute to more number of users. Future studies in the current study area might focus on considering the nexus between the accessibility and modal share as well as the long-term dynamics of the population of users. © 2018, The Author(s).