Assessment of Accessibility of Road Infrastructure Facilities forPersons with Disabilities in Addis Ababa City

Abstract

The issue of accessibility of the built environment like roads for persons with disabilities is theone which has gained attention only in recent times. Inclusive road infrastructure system is acritical element in attaining urban accessibility among the Persons with Disabilities indeveloping countries like Ethiopia. The study’s main objective was to assess the accessibility ofroad facilities for person with disabilities and identifies specific steps that can be taken toimprove the situation in Addis Ababa City. The study covered Addis Ababa city major transportroutes within the different sub cities, data were collected by purposive sampling technique fromthe association of the physically and visually impaired persons as a sample frame from sampledsegments of road from each sub-city. Data was also collected from field survey on transportenvironments and through interviews with association of PwDs as well as key informants fromdifferent key institutions. The major causes of poor accessibilities as identified were lack ofinfrastructure provision, environmental barrier, absent of law enforcement, lack of publicawareness and poor design of flow entities. The existing accessibility of road transportenvironment in each sub city of Addis Ababa is not accessible, the study identified that 40 roadsegments were selected in Addis Ababa city as a whole. The distribution by sub-city shows roadsegments in Kirkos (5 segments), Bole (5 segments), Arada (5 segments) , Yeka (3 segments),Lideta (3 segments), Nifas-Silk/Lafto (4 segments), Addis-Ketema (4 segments), Akaki (4segments), Kolfe( 4 segments) and Gullele (3 segments) sub-cities respectively. The Roadaccessibility elements identified in each sub-city indicates the presence, condition and/ordimension of pedestrian sidewalk, curb cut, zebra crossing, disability parking space, trafficcontrol signals and tactile surface. PwDs have also faced different kinds of challenges amongthat the road infrastructure facilities related problems such as Bus stops related problems (Suchas placement and parking condition), Barriers such as telephone poles, solid waste andpavements without curb ramps, Poor Road Condition such as Cracked and dangerous pavementswere the top three with respective score with relative important index 0.76, 0.75 and 0.73.Finally, recommendation were made that road infrastructure should be accessible and policyframework should be revised and participatory.