The Effect of Changes in Land Use Charateristics on Accessibility

This study investigated the effects of changes in land use characteristics on accessibility in the suburbs of Kisumu city. There are several conflicting study findings on influences and the relationships between land use and personal accessibility as revealed. There has also been less focus on the relationships between density and time taken to destinations, modal choice and residential locations, and factors determining transport cost to employment locations in the suburbs. The suburbs in Kisumu city were former rural settlements mainly dominated by agricultural land use but have all over sudden experienced a spontaneous increase of land-use types with uncontrolled changes in their characteristics. This has triggered complex movement patterns thereby posing a unique accessibility challenge in them. The study revealed that increasing density increases time to destinations in the suburbs. Residential locations were found not to depend on modal choice but house ownership and cheap rents. It was concluded that the changes in land use characteristics in the suburbs contribute to inaccessibility in them.