Assessing Taxi Transportation Spatial Equity in Access to Public School and Healthcare Services Across Mekelle Sub-cities

Abstract

This thesis investigates spatial equity in taxi transport accessibility to public school and healthcare center across the sub-cities of Mekelle, Ethiopia. It first constructed a detailed road network by integrating taxi route data collected through SW Maps with walking path data derived from Open StreetMap, cleaned and Standardized to ensure connectivity. Using this network, cumulative and gravity-based accessibility modeling was applied from residential origins, which were divided in to 257 hexagonal grid cells with 500meter sides each, to service destinations geolocated based on SW Maps. The analysis was complemented by statistical equity metrics like Lorenz curves and Gini coefficients to quantify equity. Moreover, composite equity rankings were developed by combining percentage of cumulative accessibility count, cumulative-based accessibility per capita, sum of gravitational accessibility, and gravity-based accessibility per capita. These metrics were consolidated into a composite score to assess and rank sub-cities based on their relative access to public schools and healthcare centers. Geographic Information System visualization and sub-city-level aggregation were employed to translate technical results into clear patterns of equity. Results reveal significant differences in equity levels among sub-cities. Ayder, and Hadnet sub-cities benefit equitable taxi route accessibility to public schools and healthcare centers. While, Adihaki followed by Quiha and Semien sub-cities consistently fall into the very low equity categories. Moreover, cumulative Gini values for primary schools, secondary schools, and healthcare centers were 0.381, 0.405, and 0.294 respectively, while gravity-based Gini values were 0.193, 0.205, and 0.204. These results revealed moderate to low inequity. These findings underscore the importance of using diverse analytical tools to capture the complexity of spatial equity and inform targeted planning interventions. To address these disparities, this thesis recommends targeted taxi route improvement in low-equity sub cities, improved last-mile connectivity, and the adoption of spatially precise and equity driven frameworks in taxi route planning.