**1. Introduction**

Addis Ababa city, similar to many of Africa's rapidly growing metropolises is challenged by the need for modern urban mobility systems to answer calls of an inefficient public transport service. A great percentage of the current transport system in many of these cities is almost automobile dominated [1], with the old fleet being unsustainable due to excessive air and noise pollution, high cost, congestion, and safety problems, among others. The desire to overcome these difficulties is therefore making economies advocate for increased effectual and sustainable solutions [2]. Since urban light railway infrastructure serves as a mainstay of urban mobility in conurbations [3–5], due to its benefits such as mass transit capacity, comfortability, fast speed, safety reliability, better environmental congestion and, mitigation impacts, Addis Ababa responded by implementing an urban LRT through the city and its suburbs.

Light Rail Transit (LRT) establishments are massively known to progress "sustainable urban mobility policies" in and around many municipalities due to their ability in changing urban surroundings together with conditions that are necessary in relation to terms of planning for their effective integration [6]. It is also notable that in discussing issues of the modern economy, a transport factor must be involved due to its influences in uplifting the social, environmental, and economic status [7]. By promoting the development of industries and quick accessibility, which improves the standards of living, urban rail transit positions itself as great leverage towards urban economy.

**Citation:** Sekasi, J.; Martens, M.L. Assessing the Contributions of Urban Light Rail Transit to the Sustainable Development of Addis Ababa. *Sustainability* **2021**, *13*, 5667. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su13105667

Academic Editor: Marilisa Botte

Received: 19 April 2021 Accepted: 10 May 2021 Published: 18 May 2021

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This paper presents an assessment of the contributions of LRT to the sustainability of Addis Ababa in terms of development (in the perspective of sustainable transportation development). Many recent studies have been conducted to analyze the contribution of LRT to the sustainable development of several cities across the world but in consideration of Ethiopia, limited work to this effect has been conducted. LRT infrastructure delivery with minimal sustainability assessment can lead to objectionable socio-economic and environmental effects for the stakeholders [8]. Although the state of knowledge has substantially improved in recent years as a result of these studies, many questions still remain open, and new evidence is clearly needed [9], especially in Africa. The question that arises is: how has LRT contributed to the sustainability of Addis Ababa?

A study by [10] concludes that the emergence of light rail as a new mobility system is not just a matter of creating capacity and reducing travel time but has many other rationalities attached. The authors therefore believe that one of these rationalities is the desire to achieve sustainable development. While some new LTR projects in middle income developing cities, may have limited economic and practical value [11], and some RLT project plans have been shelved mainly for financing reasons [12], many RLT operations have been a success, achieved intended objectives, and contributed to sustainability of their localities [13]. Additionally, when you consider cities that are moving towards the adoption of LRT, enough sustainability assessment has not been executed on the extensive LRT infrastructure projects. This may lead to hardships that increase costs and cause negative socio-economic and environmental consequences to the light-rail provider and the community [8].

In line with the above perspective and using formulated variables that are principal in transport sustainability, the research aims to utilize the survey method to collect perceptionbased responses amongst Addis Ababa residents on the contributions of AA-LRT to the sustainable development of Addis Ababa. Results from the collected data analysis will therefore be key in addressing the study question by indicating to what extent AA-RLT has contributed to sustainable development of Addis Ababa in the realm of the three dimensions; economic, social, and environmental sustainability dimensions, as coined by the Brundtland report [14,15]. The analysis will also try to understand the relationship among variables in each dimension.

The paper is structured in the following format. Section 2 provides a brief description of Addis Ababa city, its Light Rail Transit (AA-LRT), and sustainability approach. Then, Section 3 reviews published available literature on light rail transit and sustainability. Section 4 details materials and methods of the study, which includes the study duration and collection of both qualitative and quantitative data, particularly from a survey conducted among the residents of Addis together with data collected from ERC and other organizations. Section 5 provides the results from data analysis while Section 6 reports discussions of the results and deduced conclusions of the study, points out the limitations of the study and proposes directions for future research.
