Evaluating the Ease of Access to Public Transport Systems in Urban and Suburban Centers

On par with the rapid motorization in the urban centers and the decline of public transport usage, fuel consumption, and travel delays have become major challenges in the context of transportation. Developers, investors, commuters, and residents tend to select locations with better accessibility for land use developments. The capability of public transport transfer points/stops in minimizing the level of passenger inconvenience to connect the trip attractors/land uses is important in retaining or attracting passengers to public transport in urban forms. Passenger inconvenience at public transport transfer points/stops can occur by increased waiting time to get the next public transport service or by the increased walking distance from the public transport transfer point/stop to the desired land use. Measuring the public transport connectivity to land uses is vital for public transport operators, passengers, regulators, and investors. Existing studies have focused on measuring public transport connectivity based on waiting time at public transport transfer points/stops. The research proposes a novel methodology in terms of “public transit connectivity index” and “coverage percentage” to compare urban centers in terms of public transport accessibility and to evaluate the accessibility to each land use category via public transportation utilizing Geographical Information Systems (GIS).