Journal of Poverty, Investment and Development www.iiste.org ISSN 2422-846X An International Peer-reviewed Journal Vol.15, 2015 28 Mobility of the Poor in Akure Metropolis: Income and Land Use Approach. Busari Ayobami Adebola (Corresponding author) Covenant University Canaanlad Ota Ogun State Owolabi Adebayo Oladipo, Fadugba George Olaoluwa, Olawuyi Oluwole Ayodeji Federal University of Technology Akure Ondo State, Nigeria Abstract Nigeria being a developing economy still has a high percentage of low income earners. Mobility and modal choice affect us all in our daily life whether we are commuting to work or for recreational purpose. Catering for the effective and efficient mobility of this unique set of low income earners is a task for transport planners. This research assessed the mobility of the poor using land use and level of income. The study area was divided into six zones based on the land use configuration.Income level, frequency of trip and the predominant modal choice for both work and business trip were evaluated. The result showed that the use of taxi and motor cycle in the study area is high. The low income group has the highest frequency of trip base on the level of income and land use. The result of this research will aid the government at all levels and policy makers in formulating a good transportation scheme for the low income earners now and in the foreseeable future. It will also provide policy makers with an improved understanding of the travel behavior of the poor and their preferred modal choice. Keywords: (Poor, Low Income Earners, Modal Choice, Land Use, Income) 1.1 INTRODUCTION Assessment of the impact of income on transportation and trip demand among the low income earners is paramount because transportation is part of our daily need and the percentage of the poor in Nigeria is enormous. In the recent report by World Bank, Nigeria was ranked third among worlds ten countries with extreme poor citizens. The same organization states that 70 percent of the population live on 1.25 dollar or less per day and that 7 percent of the 1.2 billion people in the world are Nigerians (w0rld Bank ,2014) .These stated amount encompasses all the necessity of life (food, house ,medical etc.). National policy recognizes the importance of paying for food, housing, and medical care. Federal policy in Nigeria leaves the task of inta – city transport scheme to the state and local government with little or no fund. The aim of the research is to discover the factors that influence modal choice of low income group in the study area the results of the research will provide policy makers with an improved understanding of travel behavior of the poor and the preferred modal choice. This will aid decision and policy makers in formulating a good transportation scheme for the low income earners now and in the foreseeable future regions of India have occurred because of the employment opportunities created by rapid industrialization mobility and accessibility are important factors in both social and economic prosperity of a region. They affect us all in our daily life whether we are commuting to work or travelling on business, alms of this study are to try to find out the impact of household income on the total public transport demands and on the choice of rail transport for travel. The household income was selected to test because it is an important variable in trip generation and also 1.2 Theoretical background Low-income households are a unique set of population segment whose modal choice behavior is particularly relevant for transport policy planning. The significance of mobility in our daily endeavor is gigantum without which basic needs would not be accomplished (Busari et.al, 2015). Problems relating to trip demand and generation have been managed well in some developed countries while it has continued to defy solutions in the developing world as stated by (Ogunmodede, 2009). Transport demand models aim to estimate the amount of travel which will take place under a given set of assumptions. Broadly speaking these assumptions can be separated into two components: those relating to the demographic composition of the population (for example, age, proportion of labour force over the whole population and occupation), together with other external changes (for example, land-use, income, car ownership etc.), and those relating to transport system. (Ho Hing, 1999) Mobility and accessibility are important factors in both social and economic prosperity of a region. This is because mobility and modal choice affect us all in our daily life whether we are commuting to work or travelling on business. A lot needs to be done in the transportation infrastructure because this has been the neglected aspect of transport system. The state of transport system is expected to be efficient, affordable, adequate, safe, well integrated and environmentally sound. (Igwe, 2013) Travel demand forecasting process is a fundamental operation within any urban transport planning exercise (Owolabi, 2009). Hence highly educated persons often obtain more specialized jobs which are