Abstract
Urban areas are widely recognized as key hubs of economic
activity and cultural diversity, playing a vital role in both national and local
economies. Improved mobility within cities has the potential to foster greater
efficiency, environmental sustainability, and resource optimization, thereby
promoting a more inclusive society. As a result, efforts to ensure fair access to
transportation, housing, among others often necessitate policy reforms aimed
at improving the mobility patterns of urban residents. Smart mobility involves
transitioning from the conventional transportation systems and evolving toward
mobility as a service, where intelligent infrastructure though the adoption of
technology links multiple stakeholders and entities to provide an efficient,
smart, and sustainable solution. This has found a niche in transportation policy,
thus, impacting residential self-selection of households to live farther or closer
to work and other non-work destinations such as parks, enclaves, shopping
centers among others. Hence, this study examined the impact of smart mobility
technologies on trip making behavior and housing choice of respondents.
Methods: This study adopted a rigorous research design, gathering primary
data through the use of structured questionnaires. In total, 408 questionnaires
was administered using a systematic sampling method, with the survey being
conducted by research assistants. The Likert scale method for response ranking
was utilized for ranking of factors influencing trip making behavior and housing
choice of respondents, while themultiple regression analysis was used to validate
the Likert scale results.
Discussion: Findings indicated that the most significant factors (P < 0.05)
influencing choice of residential location include proximity to work, transport
cost, availability of public transport, good neighborhood and land/housing rent
and telecommuting. Based on the above, it was discovered that the role of
transportation in residential location choice plays a vital role in household’s
decision making, hence, improved mobility can lead to participative, and
cohesive society.