2023 Nairobi, Kenya, Urban Under-Exploration Transportation Study

The 2023 Urban Under-Exploration Study aimed to improve understanding of how people travel around Nairobi, Kenya.

The rapid urbanization of low- and middle-income countries has created cities that may be difficult or costly to navigate and explore. This raises the question: To what extent might the potential benefits of these cities be limited by a reluctance to explore unfamiliar areas? The study looked at how exposure to different neighborhoods changed where respondents explored or traveled and what modes of transportation they used to get there.

Image of heat map of Nairobi, Kenya, showing where the most trips were taken around the city, with the more frequently traveled areas appearing darker. The darkest places in the city appear around these areas: Riruta, Congo, Kawangware, Woodley, Kibera, Nairobi, and Donholm. The source is listed as OpenStreetMap and the 2023 Urban Under-Exploration Study. — Heat map showing trip start locations in Nairobi, Kenya, based on 52,367 trips made by 330 people. *Graphic by Davis Cover, NREL*

Data Collection Agency

Kenyatta University’s Busara Center for Behavioral Economics and Harvard University conducted the study.

Survey Methodology

Data collection was enabled by the open-source NREL OpenPATH platform, which generates a unique dataset of partially automated travel diaries, combining sensed and surveyed travel behavior data—patterns of multimodal, end-to-end, individual human mobility—as well as demographic and socioeconomic information from participants.

Survey Records, Data, and Documentation

Survey records include 330 participants.

The total number of sensed trips was 52,367 and total non-air miles traveled was approximately 143.

Full Survey Data and Documentation

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For the study's latitude and longitude data, learn how to access the spatial data.

How To Cite the Data

If you use the data in a publication, please contact us and include a citation in your publication consistent with the following format:

"Transportation Secure Data Center." [(year)]. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Accessed [date]: www.nrel.gov/tsdc.

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