Commuting in Urban Kenya: Unpacking Travel Demand in Large and Small Kenyan Cities

Abstract

In Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi, streets are regularly gridlocked. While it is clear that roads are congested at peak hours, it is not known which commuters are experiencing that congestion or what their commute times actually are. Even less is known about commuting patterns in other Kenyan cities. This paper contributes new evidence on commuting from a survey of 14,580 households, conducted in 15 Kenyan cities in 2013. Walking and matatus—privately-operated paratransit—account for 89% of all adult commuting in urban Kenya. As cities increase in size, the proportion relying on walking falls and matatu use increases. Within a city, commuters with higher income and education, and those living further from the city center, are more likely to use matatus rather than walk. Commute times are surprisingly short. In smaller Kenyan cities the median commute time is just 20 min. In Nairobi, the median commute time is 30 min, and only 5% of those surveyed reported commuting an hour or longer. These data paint a remarkably sustainable picture of urban travel patterns in Kenya. As incomes, education levels, and demand for motorized travel rise, the challenge will be to expand and improve the system while maintaining its sustainability.

Commuting Trips, Income and Gender in the Metropolitan Maputo, Mozambique

“…The negative relationships between the choice of buses and gender indicate that women are less likely to use buses in their daily commute. Surprisingly, Salon and Gulyan (2019), also reported that women are less likely to use motorized modes in the large and small Kenyan cities. In a comparative analysis of the travel behavior between Maputo and Nairobi by (Tembe et al, 2020) it was reported that gender had no impact on the likelihood of selecting Non-Motorized Transportation (NMT) either in Maputo or Nairobi.…”

Modelling geographical accessibility to urban centres in Kenya in 2019

“…Leveraging on the healthcare spatial accessibility literature on Western Kenya, it is evident that Kenyans accessed health services either through walking, bicycling, motorised transport or a mix of walking, biking and motorised transport [73]. These transport modes are likely influenced by ownership of transport assets across Kenya's counties (Table 1) and correlates with the discussed 2013 survey describing physical access to urban areas [57][58][59].…”

“…Those trips that do not include walking (17%), are by either passenger car or motorcycle [ 57 , 58 ]. Additional data collected in 2013 showed that in other major towns (Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, and Eldoret), more than 37% of commuters use motorized transport while in smaller towns, majority walk [ 59 ]. The use of matatus is common, accounting for 88% of all motorized transport in major towns and 72% in the smaller towns.…”

“…The use of matatus is common, accounting for 88% of all motorized transport in major towns and 72% in the smaller towns. As cities increase in size, the use of matatus increases and the proportion of people relying on walking falls [ 59 ]. In urban slums, among working adults, over 65% walk to work, 2% use bicycles, 32% use matatus while 96% of school-going children walk and 4% ride a matatu [ 60 ].…”

Understanding Spatio-Temporal Characteristics of Urban Travel Demand Based on the Combination of GWR and GLM

“…Therefore, many scholars and engineers have focused research on the analysis of travel demand. These studies have mainly discussed the following aspects: (1) travel demand management [6][7][8][9], (2) travel demand forecasting [10][11][12][13], and (3) travel demand modeling [14,15]. Spatio-temporal analysis is one of the most attractive directions amongst these various studies.…”