**5.1.3 Urban growth and major roads**

Figure 2 shows that urban growth is more influenced by the roads along the railway. If before independence the railway played a role in the location of industrial areas, the urban railway had not developed, now it has not facilitated access to downtown as a centre of employment and therefore has not polarized urban growth. The roads in Matadi and Bandundu, as well as routes to the drop in Lukaya and to Lake Ma-Vallée, correspond to areas of urban growth today.

Despite the role of highways in urban growth, there are areas that develop latest far from downtown and away from these axes. Indeed, an urban extension area has been observed since the 1990s, south and east of the camp which houses the faculty of the University of Kinshasa. This is the area south Cogelos and neighbourhoods Tchad, Mandela and Department Plateau to the east. These areas develop in the absence of urban amenities. Indeed, they are connected to almost none of the service water supply of REGIDESO. The population is supplied fitted to the sources (Mayi ya Libanga, Mayi ya Niwa, Mayi ya Zamba) or the fountain. This is the case in the district of Mbiti. Where the water is high, people dig a well. The lack of urban amenities does not limit urban growth in Kinshasa. The bottom line for people is to have a home.

The quantitative analysis of urban growth compared to major communication axes, made in the GRASS software, shows that 47.5% of the growth took place at more than 1 km of main roads. Beyond this 1 kilometre threshold, the advantage of proximity to the main roads can be neglected and the neighbourhood effect becomes more important in the sense that people settled near existing neighbourhoods, but at a greater distance from the road.

This helps to highlight the fact that the major communication axes are not always, or are no longer, a major factor in urban growth.
