FACTORS AFFECTING THE USAGE OF LOCAL BUSES: CASE STUDIES FROM MAPUTO AND NAIROBI

Abstract

Despite the rapidly growing demand for transportation, public buses face a continued modal share decline in SubSaharan African cities. Unlike cities where the declining modal share of local buses is strongly associated with increasing reliance
on private transport, private cars are not yet an alternative either in Maputo or in Nairobi. Using person-trip data, this paper
attempts to investigate the factors affecting the use of local buses in Maputo and Nairobi by employing logistic regression models.
Findings of this study can be summarized as follows. Household characteristics such as gender, age, occupation status, income,
vehicle ownership, and residence location were found to affect the likelihood of the bus over the car in both cities. These findings
are expected to contribute to improving public bus usage not only in Maputo and Nairobi but also in other developing cities facing
similar problems.