First-mile and last-mile externalities: Perspectives from a developing country

Abstract

Transport equity, which emphasises fair and equitable distribution to reach various significant activities and opportunities such as work and healthcare, has greatly interested researchers and practitioners. Enhancing first-mile and last-mile travel and commuting experiences augment an individual's travel satisfaction. However, challenges with first-mile and last-mile travel lead to social exclusion and inequity concerns in accessing services and a reduction in the utilisation of public transport. There is limited insight regarding commuters' experiences and challenges in this context, particularly in developing countries. This dearth of knowledge makes it difficult to implement measures to enhance connectivity and accessibility. Thus, we investigate the first-mile and last-mile experiences and challenges of commuters in Ghana using qualitative and quantitative data from semi-structured interviews and questionnaire survey, which are rare in this subject's study. The analysis through the logit model showed that commuters with increasing distances for the first and last miles have difficulty with transport accessibility. The results showed that demographic factors like age and gender did not significantly affect first-mile and last-mile accessibility, suggesting that the challenges are experienced across different groups. The thematic analysis revealed five essential themes: (i) cost, (ii) limited accessibility, (iii) safety, long walking distances and (v) temporal factors like weather as challenges commuters encounter with their first-mile and last-mile trips. This research contributes to the extant literature on the experiences and challenges of first-mile and last-mile commutes. It provides depth to the literature by offering perspectives from a developing country. It also holds practical significance for transport authorities and government departments and agencies.