Modeling access to public transport in urban areas

It is important to measure public transport accessibility to help improve the sustainability of transport systems in metropolitan areas. Although many studies have defined different approaches for measuring public transport accessibility, there have been limited methods developed for measuring accessibility levels that incorporate spatial aspects. Population density is an important distributional indicator that has also been ignored in previous methods developed for quantifying accessibility. This paper outlines the research context for measurement of public transport accessibility and then describes a methodology developed as well as an application the Public Transport Accessibility Index in Melbourne area, Australia. Using the Victorian Integrated Survey of Travel and Activity dataset, we applied separate‐ordered logit regression models to examine how the new index performs with a series of predictor variables compared with two existing approaches. Key findings indicate that there is a higher probability of public transport patronage in areas with higher levels of accessibility. Furthermore, it was found using statistical modelling that the new index produces better results compared with previous approaches. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing the employment agglomeration and social accessibility impacts of high speed rail in Eastern Australia

There is growing interest in establishing additional evidence, under the umbrella of the wider economy impacts of transport infrastructure projects, to support transport projects in general and public transport projects in particular that struggle to obtain benefit–cost ratios sufficient to gain the support of financial agencies. This paper focuses on one element of wider economy impacts, often referred to as effective economic (employment) density or employment agglomeration impacts, and another, less usually identified, social accessibility impact (SAI) which we refer to as effective social density, which in broad terms provide, correspondingly, evidence of the potential gains in work-related output (often referred to as productivity gains) and potential gains in non-work-related outputs. Both are associated with gains in individual and household benefit attributable to improved accessibility to services linked with populations and particular locations. The SAIs may capture some of the induced benefits in those jurisdictions where these are included routinely in benefit–cost analysis, and the methodology here is most appropriate to those settings where an existing calibrated demand curve may not be available. Using the proposed high speed rail (HSR) project between Sydney and Melbourne as the empirical setting, we identify economic agglomeration and social accessibility benefits for work and non-work related activity respectively. We find the former to be relatively small compared to the significant gains associated with non-work related travel activity, suggesting the greatest benefits associated with HSR, especially for those residents outside of the major metropolitan areas, will be non-work related travel activity.     

Effects of built environment on walking at the neighbourhood scale. A new role for street networks by modelling their configurational accessibility?

The hypothesis of this paper is that some features of the built environment, particularly those concerned with the accessibility of the street network, could be associated with the proportion of pedestrians on all trips (modal split) found in different parts of a city. Quantitative analysis (bi-variate correlation and a multiple regression model) was used to establish the association between variables. The study area covered a substantial part of the metropolitan area in Madrid, Spain. Results showed a consistent influence of five particular indexes in the multi-variate model. Not surprisingly for this kind of research, four of them described density and mix of land uses. But perhaps more interestingly, the first one was a measure of the accessibility of the public space network, a less prominent variable in literature to date. This variable is called herein configurational accessibility, calculated using Space Syntax, an urban morphology theory. The relevance of configurational accessibility is probably related to its surprising ability to synthesize global and perceived properties of street networks at the same time. The findings introduce the idea that the configuration of the urban grid can influence the proportion of pedestrians (as a part of total trips in any transport mode) who choose to walk on single-journey trips. The discussion links with the current debate about walkability indexes and the need of empirical support for the chosen variables and also with transport planning. Because the relevance of the street network’s role is not so easy to grasp, inputs from configurational theory and the pedestrian potential underlying this fact are also discussed at the end of the paper.     

Evaluation of urban accessibility indicators based on internal and external environmental costs

This paper estimates urban accessibility considering types of transport and destinations, taking into account the internal travel time costs, and the ensuing external environmental impacts. Based on online and local surveys, an accessibility function is developed to allow for the construction of an accessibility curve for each transport mode that decreases with distance to represent decaying accessibility. An external environmental impact is associated with the accessibility indicators, taking into account the influence of the cold-start emissions that are particularly relevant for short-distance trips. The methodology is applied to neighborhoods in Lisbon, Portugal, with significant differences in their urban planning, mobility patterns, concentration of services and availability of public transportation.     

Trip generation of vulnerable populations in three Canadian cities: a spatial ordered probit approach

This paper provides an analysis of trip generation of three vulnerable groups: single-parent families, low income households, and the elderly. It compares the mobility of these groups to that of the general population in three Canadian urban areas of Hamilton, Montreal and Toronto, based on data from large-sample metropolitan transport surveys. An ordered probit model with spatially expanded coefficients is used for the analysis. Spatial expansion shows that there are spatial mobility trends for elderly populations and low-income populations even after socio-economic attributes are accounted for. Such spatial differences are not generally found for single parent families. This novel spatial analysis provides clues as to where vulnerable populations may experience greater degrees of social exclusion. It provides information to help prioritize transportation infrastructure projects or other social programs to take into account the needs of vulnerable populations with the lowest levels of mobility.     

The cost of equity: Assessing transit accessibility and social disparity using total travel cost

Social equity is increasingly incorporated as a long-term objective into urban transportation plans. Researchers use accessibility measures to assess equity issues, such as determining the amount of jobs reachable by marginalized groups within a defined travel time threshold and compare these measures across socioeconomic categories. However, allocating public transit resources in an equitable manner is not only related to travel time, but also related to the out-of-pocket cost of transit, which can represent a major barrier to accessibility for many disadvantaged groups. Therefore, this research proposes a set of new accessibility measures that incorporates both travel time and transit fares. It then applies those measures to determine whether people residing in socially disadvantaged neighborhoods in Montreal, Canada experience the same levels of transit accessibility as those living in other neighborhoods. Results are presented in terms of regional accessibility and trends by social indicator decile. Travel time accessibility measures estimate a higher number of jobs that can be reached compared to combined travel time and cost measures. However, the degree and impact of these measures varies across the social deciles. Compared to other groups in the region, residents of socially disadvantaged areas have more equitable accessibility to jobs using transit; this is reflected in smaller decreases in accessibility when fare costs are included. Generating new measures of accessibility combining travel time and transit fares provides more accurate measures that can be easily communicated by transportation planners and engineers to policy makers and the public since it translates accessibility measures to a dollar value.     

Evaluating household residential preferences for walkability and accessibility across three U.S. regions

Accessibility has been established as a major planning goal in recent years. However, little knowledge exists regarding how individuals value walkability, transit accessibility, and auto accessibility differently when deciding where to live. To fill this knowledge gap, this study conducts residential location choice modeling across three U.S. regions—Atlanta, Puget Sound, and Southeast Michigan. I find that, overall, all three types of accessibility are important determinants of residential location choice. Transit accessibility has a statistically significant positive influence on residential location choice across all three regions. On auto accessibility, results show that commute time by auto has the greatest influence on residential location choice among all independent variables, but auto accessibility to nonwork destinations appears to be inconsequential. Moreover, walkability is found to be a key determinant of residential location choice in the Puget Sound region but not the other two regions. I argue that these regional differences result from a lack of choice among Atlanta and Southeast Michigan residents, that is, a undersupply of walkable neighborhoods inhibits households in the two regions from living in such neighborhoods. This finding suggests the need for cities and regions to promote pedestrian-oriented development in order to broaden residential choice. The results further imply that, due to housing-supply constraints, households often have to live in a neighborhood with a level of accessibility lower than what they prefer. Transportation and land-use planners should address this “residential dissonance” when applying residential location choice models to predict land-use growth patterns.     

Built environment and mode choice relationship for commute travel in the city of Rajkot,India

Metropolitan areas around the world are looking for sustainable strategies to reduce use of private automobiles, energy consumption and emissions, often achieved by built environment interventions that encourage use of sustainable modes of transport. This study contributes by providing the empirical evidence on the relation between built environment and mode choice in context of Indian city of Rajkot. Using personal interview data and data available from Rajkot Municipal Corporation it is observed that there is a strong tendency among Rajkot residents to preselect their residential location to suit their modal preferences. This is especially true for non-motorized transport users. Among the built environment variables, access to destination and land use related indicators also have significant influence on mode choice. The study Infers that the land use policy should focus on accessibility and mixing of diverse uses, and transport supply will have to be location based to support non-motorized and public transport travel.     

Planning transport for social inclusion: An accessibility-activity participation approach

Social equity is increasingly becoming an important objective in transport planning and project evaluation. This paper provides a framework and an empirical investigation in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) examining the links between public transit accessibility and the risks of social exclusion, simply understood as the suppressed ability to conduct daily activities at normal levels. Specifically, we use a large-sample travel survey to present a new transport-geography concept termed participation deserts, neighbourhood-level clusters of lower than expected activity participation. We then use multivariate models to estimate where, and for whom, improvements in transit accessibility will effectively increase activity participation and reduce risks of transport-related social exclusion. Our results show that neighbourhoods with high concentrations of low-income and zero-car households located outside of major transit corridors are the most sensitive to having improvements in accessibility increase daily activity participation rates. We contend that transit investments providing better connections to these neighbourhoods would have the greatest benefit in terms of alleviating existing inequalities and reducing the risks of social exclusion. The ability for transport investments to liberate suppressed activity participation is not currently being predicted or valued in existing transport evaluation methodologies, but there is great potential in doing so in order to capture the social equity benefits associated with increasing transit accessibility.     

The influence of parents’ travel patterns,perceptions and residential self-selectivity to their children travel mode shares

Using the UK National Travel Survey from 2002 to 2006, this paper investigates the influence of households’ residential self-selectivity, parents’ perceptions on accessibilities and their travel patterns on their children daily travel mode share. In doing this, this study introduces a model structure that represents the complex interactions between the parents’ travel patterns, their perceptions on public transport services and their reported residential self-selectivity reasons and the children travel mode shares. This structure is analysed with structural equation modelling. The model estimation results show that parents’ residential self-selectivity, parents’ perceptions and satisfactions on accessibilities and their daily travel patterns significantly influence the children’s daily travel mode shares. However, the effects are not uniform across household members. This study has revealed that households’ residential self-selectivity behaviours have more correlations with the children’s non-motorised mode shares, whilst the parents’ perceptions and satisfactions on transport infrastructure and public transport service qualities have more correlations with parents’ mode shares. The results also confirm that parents’ non-motorised modes use in travelling is highly correlated with the children’s physically active travel mode shares. However, at the same time, the results also show that the effects of mothers’ car use to the children travel mode shares is more apparent than fathers’.     

Multimodal travel groups and attitudes: A latent class cluster analysis of Dutch travelers

For developing sustainable travel policies, it may be helpful to identify multimodal travelers, that is, travelers who make use of more than one mode of transport within a given period of time. Of special interest is identifying car drivers who also use public transport and/or bicycle, as this group is more likely to respond to policies that stimulate the use of those modes. It is suggested in the literature that this group may have less biased perceptions and different attitudes towards those modes. This supposition is examined in this paper by conducting a latent class cluster analysis, which identifies (multi)modal travel groups based on the self-reported frequency of mode use. Simultaneously, a membership function is estimated to predict the probability of belonging to each of the five identified (multi)modal travel groups, as a function of attitudinal variables in addition to structural variables. The results indicate that the (near) solo car drivers indeed have more negative attitudes towards public transport and bicycle, while frequent car drivers who also use public transport have less negative public transport attitudes. Although the results suggest that in four of the five identified travel groups, attitudes are congruent with travel mode use, this is not the case for the group who uses public transport most often. This group has relatively favorable car attitudes, and given that many young, low-income travelers belong to this group, it may be expected that at least part of this group will start using car more often once they can afford it. Based on the results, challenges for sustainable policies are formulated for each of the identified (multi)modal travel groups.     

Towards integrated traveller information

Traveller information provision has become a key government priority in the UK following the publication of its Transport White Paper in July 1998. Developments are already underway for the integration of information systems across different public transport modes and between public transport information systems covering different regions. The Highways Agency (which is responsible for managing the strategic road network in the UK) is also advancing in its development of information databases and systems for the motorist. This paper considers the prospect of providing travellers with multimodal information with integration of driver information with public transport information. If such integration can be achieved then travellers, and in particular drivers, have the prospect of being presented with comparable information on travel options across modes. An integrated information service has a great potential to inform and influence travel choices. The paper considers the issue of travel choices and the role that information can play particularly in the context of mode choice. The political (UK) and technological climate for information provision is outlined. The paper identifies issues that will need to be addressed to identify the requirements from, and potential benefits of, integrated information, and the obstacles and challenges likely to be faced in moving towards it. Driver reactions, in particular, to the prospect of integrated information provision are fundamental to the assessment of its potential importance and value.     

Does regional travel time unreliability influence mode choice?

Researchers and practitioners highlight the unreliability of travel as a potential weak link in the transportation system which may inhibit individuals’ accessibility and urban economic activity. With the trend towards increasing traffic congestion, the outlook suggests that travel conditions will become structurally less reliable over time, but that not all places will be equally affected. But is travel time unreliability a problem? This study uses global positioning systems travel survey data for Chicago to build a regional model of travel time unreliability. The results suggest that unreliability varies spatially during different time periods, but that the average overall network unreliability varies little across times in the day. Using the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP)’s 2007 Travel Tracker Survey, a household travel diary survey including both GPS and non-GPS components, we estimate a mode choice model for work trips to explore the influence of unreliability on travel behavior. The results suggest that unreliable auto travel conditions induce mode switching to transit and that the influence is strongest when service by train is already faster than by car. This further suggests that auto travel unreliability may have the strongest influence in metropolitan regions with highly-competitive transit systems. Nevertheless, the influence of travel unreliability is limited and is not the underlying driver of travel decision-making.     

Metropolitan sprawl measurement and its impacts on commuting trips and road emissions

This study measures urban form as indicators of metropolitan sprawl and explores its impact on commuting trips and NO_x and CO₂ emissions from road traffic in all metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) and four groups’ MSAs separated by population in the continental United States. Encompassing all MSAs, the study adds the accessibility factor to four existing factors: density, land use mix, centeredness, and street connectivity. The study establishes multivariate regression models between urban form, commuting trips, and emissions from road traffic while controlling for socioeconomic conditions. The study shows that urban form index and five urban form factors have a statistically significant association with commuting trips, NO_x and CO₂ emissions from road traffic. In four MSA groups as determined by MSA population size, higher values of urban form factors (i.e., lower sprawl) are statistically associated with more walking commuters. On the other hand, higher values of urban form factors are associated with fewer commuting vehicles per household in large MSAs with the moderate effect, a lower average commuting drive time in medium and small MSAs, and more commuters using public transportation in medium and large MSAs. This study provides an urban form index covering all metropolitan areas in the continental United States by adding another urban form factor, and the findings show that urban form factors have different effects on mode choices, drive time, and emission from road traffic depending on the MSA population size.     

Characterisation of and reflections on the synergy of bicycles and public transport

The bicycle is often understood as a disjointed ‘feeder’ mode that provides access to public transport. We argue that combined use of the bicycle and public transport should be understood in a broader perspective, especially where bicycles link to higher speed and higher capacity public transport, such as the train. Cycling and public transport can have a symbiotic relationship forming a hybrid, distinct transport mode, which should be reflected in transport planning. The bicycle is as a way to soften the rigid nature of public transport and thus accommodate diverse individual travel needs and situations. Public transport can be seen as a means to dramatically extend cycling’s speed and spatial reach. We combine a system perspective with conceptual analysis to explore how, why and when this reconsideration is important. We use the Netherlands as illustrative case because of the relative maturity of its bicycle–train connections. The case shows that the synergy between rather opposite yet highly complementary aspects, high speed of the train, high accessibility of the bicycle and flexibility in combining both sub-modes, are the fundamental characteristics to understand the functioning of this system in a wider spatial context. In our conclusion we propose a research agenda, to further explore the relevance of this system for land-use and transport planning and distil wider implications for the international debate.     

Optimizing location and capacity of rail-based Park-and-Ride sites to increase public transport usage

This paper presents a new methodology to identify optimal locations and capacity for rail-based Park-and-Ride (P&R) sites to increase public transport mode share. P&R is usually taken as an important component of policies for the sustainable development of urban transport systems. However, previous studies reveal that arbitrarily determined P&R sites may act to reduce public transport commuting. This paper proposes a methodology for the optimal location and capacity design of P&R sites, with the aim of enhancing public transport usage. A Combined Mode Split and Traffic Assignment (CMSTA) model is proposed for the P&R scheme. Taking the CMSTA model as the lower level, a bi-level mathematical programming model is then built to establish the optimal location and capacity of P&R sites. A heuristic genetic algorithm is adopted to solve this model. Finally, a network example is adopted to test numerically the proposed models and algorithms.     

Is it expensive to be poor? Public transport in Sweden

Transportation - One of the reasons to subsidise public transport is to improve the mobility of low-income groups by providing affordable public transport; however, the literature describes a...     

A justice-theoretic approach to the distribution of transportation benefits: Implications for transportation planning practice in the United States

Transportation improvements inevitably lead to an uneven distribution of user benefits, in space and by network type (private and public transport). This paper makes a moral argument for what would be a fair distribution of these benefits. The argument follows Walzer’s “Spheres of Justice” approach to define the benefits of transportation, access, as a sphere deserving a separate, non-market driven, distribution. That distribution, we propose, is one where the maximum gap between the lowest and highest accessibility, both by mode and in space, should be limited, while attempting to maximize average access. We then review transportation planning practice for a priori distributional goals and find little explicit guidance in conventional and even justice-oriented transportation planning and analyses. We end with a discussion of the implications for practice.     

A dynamic route choice model for public transport networks with boarding queues

Abstract

The concepts of optimal strategy and hyperpath were born within the framework of static frequency-based public transport assignment, where it is assumed that travel times and frequencies do not change over time and no overcrowding occurs. However, the formation of queues at public transport stops can prevent passengers from boarding the first vehicle approaching and can thus lead to additional delays in their trip. Assuming that passengers know from previous experience that for certain stops/lines they will have to wait for the arrival of the 2nd, 3rd, …, k-th vehicle, they may alter their route choices, thus resulting in a different assignment of flows across the network. The aim of this paper is to investigate route choice behaviour changes as a result of the formation and dispersion of queues at stops within the framework of optimal travel strategies. A new model is developed, based on modifications of existing algorithms.     

Identification and quantification of link vulnerability in multi-level public transport networks: a passenger perspective

Robust public transport networks are important, since disruptions decrease the public transport accessibility of areas. Despite this importance, the full passenger impacts of public transport network vulnerability have not yet been considered in science and practice. We have developed a methodology to identify the most vulnerable links in the total, multi-level public transport network and to quantify the societal costs of link vulnerability for these identified links. Contrary to traditional single-level network approaches, we consider the integrated, total multi-level PT network in the identification and quantification of link vulnerability, including PT services on other network levels which remain available once a disturbance occurs. We also incorporate both exposure to large, non-recurrent disturbances and the impacts of these disturbances explicitly when identifying and quantifying link vulnerability. This results in complete and realistic insights into the negative accessibility impacts of disturbances. Our methodology is applied to a case study in the Netherlands, using a dataset containing 2.5 years of disturbance information. Our results show that especially crowded links of the light rail/metro network are vulnerable, due to the combination of relatively high disruption exposure and relatively high passenger flows. The proposed methodology allows quantification of robustness benefits of measures, in addition to the costs of these measures. Showing the value of robustness, our work can support and rationalize the decision-making process of public transport operators and authorities regarding the implementation of robustness measures.