Abstract
Urban transport is one of the necessities that cities require to perform their day-to-day activities. At the same time, it is also the major threat to global climate change. This study examines the status and growth of road transport in Mekelle city. Data for the study were collected from primary and secondary data sources. This study found that the number of motor vehicles in Mekelle city has increased in an average growth rate of 17.34% for the last ten years. The growth rate is highest for NGO cars and it is lowest for private automobiles. Most of the cars in the city were under five years of service age. The current share of motorized vehicles in urban transport of Mekelle city is 33.44% and the vehicle ownership rate of the city is 35.6 vehicles/1000 people, which is above the national average. The number of registered vehicles in the city has more than doubled between 2003 and 2008 within 6 years of the period. It also nearly doubled from the period from 2008 to 2012. The trends in the growth of private automobiles and governmental vehicles are found to be smooth. Taxis have shown similar growth rate between the period of 2004 and 2007 and it underwent a sharp increase during 2009. The average growth rate of commercial (code-3) cars is higher between the years of 2003 and 2005, and non-governmental cars have been increasing in a sharp decreasing rate up to 2010 and started to move up in an increasing rate since 2010.
Key Words: Motorized transport, Non-motorized transport, Urban transport
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