Last mile commute: An integral sustainability component for passengers accessibility within city's transport fabric

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2022

Subject Area

place - africa, place - urban, land use - transit oriented development, land use - planning, infrastructure, ridership - commuting, planning - personal safety/crime, planning - integration

Keywords

Last mile commute, Passenger accessibility, Sustainable transport, Rapidly urbanizing cities, Non-motorized transport, Walking and cycling infrastructure

Abstract

Increasingly, the clamour for transit solutions that integrate last mile commute infrastructure has assumed relevance in the discourse on sustainable transport. This paper examines the debate/argument surrounding the current practice where transit infrastructure intervention in cities majorly terminates at transit stations with little consideration to the relevant non-motorized transport infrastructure which links commuters to the final phase of commute, including specific focus on investigating the costs and impacts associated with the inconvenient and un-safe access to transit stations. It argues that there is a disproportionately high transport costs expended on motorized last mile commute due to the lack of non-motorized safe segregated walking or cycling infrastructure. This paper is premised upon a cross-sectional study of a Case City Abuja-Nigeria, where it explored both qualitative and quantitative data sets to demonstrate the suggested lack of priority to non-motorized last mile commute infrastructure. The empirical investigation elicited evidence which supports the argument that the existing last mile commute situation in Abuja is associated with disproportionately high transport cost incurred by commuters, due to the lack of priority to last mile commute infrastructure. The author therefore draws conclusion that last mile commute is a concrete theme in achieving efficient passenger accessibility especially in rapidly urbanizing global south cities.

Rights

Permission to publish the abstract has been given by Elsevier, copyright remains with them.

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