Since 2004 Ethiopia has experiencedstrong and generally broad-based real economic growthaveraging 10.7 percent per annum. It is one of the mostpopulous countries in the world, but it is not highlyurbanized. Nevertheless, urbanization in Ethiopia is takingplace rapidly, and is expected to increase over the comingfew decades.Addis Ababa, is its commercial and politicalcenter and exemplary of the rapid urban growth of Ethiopia.The rapid urban and metropolitan growth in Addis Ababa isexacerbated by poor planning and land-use, inadequateinfrastructure, and chronic housing shortage. A keychallenge for housing in the Addis Ababa metropolitan area,and, indeed, of planning in general, is that lack ofcoordination with transportation. The one factor that hasmitigated the growth in congestion has been thatmotorization rates in Addis Ababa are very low by globalstandards. Over the past seven years, Addis Ababa has beenmaking a concerted effort to improve the urban transportsituation, largely through large investments in newinfrastructure, including roads, a new Light Rail Transit(LRT) system (under construction) and plans for a new BusRapid Transit (BRT) system, and improved standards andpractices for improving and integrating pedestrianfacilities in major transport capital projects. It hasinvested heavily in its road asset stock, with 26 percent ofits capital investment budget dedicated to transport. Theseinvestments in the road network may provide less economicand mobility value for residents than their planners mayhave intended, for four reasons. Indeed, at the current lowrates of motorization, the frequent and ubiquitouscongestion in the city suggests substantialshortcomings inhow traffic is managed, rather than a fundamental mismatchbetween transport supply and demand. In order to improvepublic transport, for the city’s largely non-motorizedpopulation, substantial investments in mass transportnetwork have been made or identified. The current publictransport provision/operation has a number of weaknesses,with governance being a critical one. Even though most tripsin Addis Ababa are made by walking, facilities forpedestrians tend to be inadequate and substandard.Integrating transport with land-use development has alsoproven to be very difficult in Addis Ababa. In terms ofoverall urban development, although the Ethiopian governmentis making attempts at planning and catering for the rapidurban growth, urbanization still takes place largely in anunplanned/informal way. In recent years, the rate of spatialexpansion of the city is outpacing the rate of populationgrowth, resulting in a less than efficient overall physical form.
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