The Economic and Environmental Impacts of Road Traffic Congestion in Addis Ababa; the case of Ayat-Mexico Corridor

Abstract

This research aimed to analyze the economic and environmental impacts of traffic congestion in Addis Ababa, the case of Ayat-Mexico road corridor, one of the city's busiest road corridors. To this end, a survey research design was employed, and 384 sample passengers were taken using convenient sampling. The data were collected primarily using a questionnaire and substantiated by interviews and document review. Then the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency, mean and standard deviation. Based on the findings of the vstudy, the study corridor is highly congested, mainly in the morning and afternoon peak hours. The most significant causes of road traffic congestion in this study corridor are intersection bottlenecks, job centralization, poor traffic management, inadequate public transport, a large volume of private cars, and the presence of on-street parking. The result also showed that the congestion situation in the study area resulted in adverse economic and environmental impacts such as reduced productivity, increased fuel consumption, increased vehicle operation cost, discomfort, and health and traffic accident-related problems. The study thus suggests the provision of adequate mass transport, on-street parking restrictions, priority schemes for walking and cycling, and discouraging private car use during rush hours as alternative solutions.