Accessibility Of Urban Sidewalks In Addis Ababa City: In Case Of Megenagna To Cmc Princpal Arterial Street

Abstract

Recently Addis Ababa city is experiencing a heavy pedestrian flows characterized by overcrowdings. Because of the shortage of satisfactory sidewalks, pedestrian walkways are often difficult to walk on. Since pedestrians are more vulnerable to accidents than other mode of transportation users, the primary objective of this research is evaluating the accessibility of sidewalks in case of Megenagna to CMC principal Arterial Street. Once the evaluation is made, the causes that affect the accessibility of sidewalks were identified and, their impacts on the pedestrians are also included. In a process of achieving the three objectives, three data collection methods were used. Observation to study the conditions of sidewalks by take measurements and photographs were conducted. In addition questionnaire survey and interview were conducted in order to identify the real life factors affecting the accessibility of sidewalks and the impacts posed on the pedestrians based on pedestrian’s perception. Moreover in order to evaluate the accessibility of the sidewalks in relation to pedestrian level of service, pedestrian count was performed on different section of the pedestrian sidewalk on different days of the week. Once the data was collected, HCM and Australian pedestrian level of service were used to analyze the data in evaluating the accessibility. Secondly descriptive and photographic analysis with summery of questionaries’ responses were used to identify the factors affecting accessibility of sidewalks and impacts faced by pedestrians. Finally as conclusions were made in that most of the sidewalks about 66.7% were grade D, showing that the pedestrian’s Freedom to select individual walking speed and to bypass other pedestrians is restricted finally affecting the accessibility of the sidewalk. The major factors in causing this problems are design, location and user factors. In the perception of the pedestrian’s, theft including physical and sexual abuse were the major challenges posed on pedestrians.