IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jotrge/v106y2023ics0966692322002319.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impacts of accessibility measure choice on public transit project evaluation: A comparative study of cumulative, gravity-based, and hybrid approaches

Author

Listed:
  • Klar, Ben
  • Lee, Jinhyung
  • Long, Jed A.
  • Diab, Ehab

Abstract

This paper investigates whether different types of accessibility measures can perform similarly when evaluating changes in accessibility before and after transport interventions. Specifically, we compare three types of placed-based accessibility approaches: 1) cumulative-opportunity, 2) gravity-based, and 3) hybrid of the two. We conduct a comprehensive comparison of 12 accessibility measures by combining different operational forms, impedance functions, and parameters to see if the results of project appraisals are sensitive to the choice of accessibility measure. For case studies, we consider two scenarios in Canada: new bus rapid transit (BRT) services in Vancouver and transit system redesign (TSR) in Edmonton. We carry out high spatio-temporal resolution accessibility analyses based on General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) datasets through an open-source transit analytics tool. Results demonstrate that the three types of measures perform differently when evaluating changes in accessibility pre and post transit interventions. Accessibility change scores generated by cumulative-opportunity measures are notably different from those produced by gravity-based and hybrid measures. Also, the capability of cumulative-opportunity approach in capturing the geographic extent of areas affected by transit interventions is limited. We found that the project appraisal results can even change from positive to negative or vice versa, depending on the chosen accessibility measure. We recommend an analyst test several types of accessibility measure with a range of parameters for a more robust evaluation on the impacts of new public transit services on accessibility. We share our code and data to promote reproducible transportation science in planning practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Klar, Ben & Lee, Jinhyung & Long, Jed A. & Diab, Ehab, 2023. "The impacts of accessibility measure choice on public transit project evaluation: A comparative study of cumulative, gravity-based, and hybrid approaches," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:106:y:2023:i:c:s0966692322002319
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2022.103508
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692322002319
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2022.103508?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Farber, Steven & Bartholomew, Keith & Li, Xiao & Páez, Antonio & Nurul Habib, Khandker M., 2014. "Assessing social equity in distance based transit fares using a model of travel behavior," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 291-303.
    2. Kevin Manaugh & Ahmed El- Geneidy, 2012. "Who benefits from new transportation infrastructure? Using accessibility measures to evaluate social equity in public transport provision," Chapters, in: Karst T. Geurs & Kevin J. Krizek & Aura Reggiani (ed.), Accessibility Analysis and Transport Planning, chapter 12, pages 211-227, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Sanaullah, Irum & Alsaleh, Nael & Djavadian, Shadi & Farooq, Bilal, 2021. "Spatio-temporal analysis of on-demand transit: A case study of Belleville, Canada," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 284-301.
    4. El-Geneidy, Ahmed & Levinson, David & Diab, Ehab & Boisjoly, Genevieve & Verbich, David & Loong, Charis, 2016. "The cost of equity: Assessing transit accessibility and social disparity using total travel cost," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 302-316.
    5. Ahmed El-Geneidy & David Levinson, 2022. "Making accessibility work in practice," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 129-133, March.
    6. Karner, Alex, 2018. "Assessing public transit service equity using route-level accessibility measures and public data," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 24-32.
    7. Lee, Jinhyung & Miller, Harvey J., 2020. "Robust accessibility: Measuring accessibility based on travelers' heterogeneous strategies for managing travel time uncertainty," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    8. Fan, Yingling & Guthrie, Andrew E & Levinson, David M, 2012. "Impact of light rail implementation on labor market accessibility: A transportation equity perspective," The Journal of Transport and Land Use, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, vol. 5(3), pages 28-39.
    9. Wessel, Nate & Allen, Jeff & Farber, Steven, 2017. "Constructing a routable retrospective transit timetable from a real-time vehicle location feed and GTFS," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 92-97.
    10. Nassir, Neema & Hickman, Mark & Malekzadeh, Ali & Irannezhad, Elnaz, 2016. "A utility-based travel impedance measure for public transit network accessibility," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 26-39.
    11. Kim, Junghwan & Lee, Bumsoo, 2019. "More than travel time: New accessibility index capturing the connectivity of transit services," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 8-18.
    12. Wachs, Martin & Kumagai, T. Gordon, 1973. "Physical accessibility as a social indicator," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 437-456, October.
    13. Fariba Siddiq & Brian D. Taylor, 2021. "Tools of the Trade?," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 87(4), pages 497-511, October.
    14. David Levinson & Hao Wu, 2020. "Towards a general theory of access," Working Papers 2022-01, University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group.
    15. Wee, Bert van & Geurs, Karst & Chorus, Caspar, 2013. "Information, communication, travel behavior and accessibility," The Journal of Transport and Land Use, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, vol. 6(3), pages 1-16.
    16. Luyu Liu & Harvey J Miller, 2021. "Measuring risk of missing transfers in public transit systems using high-resolution schedule and real-time bus location data," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(15), pages 3140-3156, November.
    17. Ahmed El-Geneidy & Michael Grimsrud & Rania Wasfi & Paul Tétreault & Julien Surprenant-Legault, 2014. "New evidence on walking distances to transit stops: identifying redundancies and gaps using variable service areas," Transportation, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 193-210, January.
    18. Wang, Jueyu & Lindsey, Greg, 2019. "Do new bike share stations increase member use: A quasi-experimental study," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 1-11.
    19. Pereira, Rafael H.M., 2019. "Future accessibility impacts of transport policy scenarios: Equity and sensitivity to travel time thresholds for Bus Rapid Transit expansion in Rio de Janeiro," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 321-332.
    20. Páez, Antonio & Scott, Darren M. & Morency, Catherine, 2012. "Measuring accessibility: positive and normative implementations of various accessibility indicators," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 141-153.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tomasiello, Diego Bogado & Santos, Daniel Herszenhut Meirelles & Oliveira, João Lucas Albuquerque & Braga, Carlos Kaue Vieira & Pereira, Rafael H. M., 2022. "A time interval metric for cumulative opportunity accessibility," SocArXiv ux5ah, Center for Open Science.
    2. Rajat Verma & Mithun Debnath & Shagun Mittal & Satish V. Ukkusuri, 2024. "Towards a generalized accessibility measure for transportation equity and efficiency," Papers 2404.04985, arXiv.org.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Javanmard, Reyhane & Lee, Jinhyung & Kim, Junghwan & Liu, Luyu & Diab, Ehab, 2023. "The impacts of the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP) on social equity analysis of public transit reliability," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    2. Mingzhu Song & Yi Zhang & Meng Li & Yi Zhang, 2021. "Accessibility of Transit Stops with Multiple Feeder Modes: Walking and Private-Bike Cycling," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-27, March.
    3. Cui, Boer & DeWeese, James & Wu, Hao & King, David A. & Levinson, David & El-Geneidy, Ahmed, 2022. "All ridership is local: Accessibility, competition, and stop-level determinants of daily bus boardings in Portland, Oregon," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    4. Dong Liu & Mei‐Po Kwan, 2020. "Measuring Job Accessibility Through Integrating Travel Time, Transit Fare And Income: A Study Of The Chicago Metropolitan Area," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 111(4), pages 671-685, September.
    5. Weckström, Christoffer & Kujala, Rainer & Mladenović, Miloš N. & Saramäki, Jari, 2019. "Assessment of large-scale transitions in public transport networks using open timetable data: case of Helsinki metro extension," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Stępniak, Marcin & Pritchard, John P. & Geurs, Karst T. & Goliszek, Sławomir, 2019. "The impact of temporal resolution on public transport accessibility measurement: Review and case study in Poland," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 8-24.
    7. Boisjoly, Geneviève & El-Geneidy, Ahmed M., 2017. "How to get there? A critical assessment of accessibility objectives and indicators in metropolitan transportation plans," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 38-50.
    8. Boisjoly, Geneviève & El-Geneidy, Ahmed M., 2017. "The insider: A planners' perspective on accessibility," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 33-43.
    9. Chih-Hao Wang & Na Chen, 2021. "A multi-objective optimization approach to balancing economic efficiency and equity in accessibility to multi-use paths," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 1967-1986, August.
    10. Cui, Boer & Boisjoly, Geneviève & El-Geneidy, Ahmed & Levinson, David, 2019. "Accessibility and the journey to work through the lens of equity," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 269-277.
    11. Daniel Oviedo & Lynn Scholl & Marco Innao & Lauramaria Pedraza, 2019. "Do Bus Rapid Transit Systems Improve Accessibility to Job Opportunities for the Poor? The Case of Lima, Peru," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-24, May.
    12. Mengying Cui & David Levinson, 2020. "Primal and Dual Access," Working Papers 2022-01, University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group.
    13. Li, Shengxiao (Alex) & Duan, Hongyu (Anna) & Smith, Tony E. & Hu, Haoyu, 2021. "Time-varying accessibility to senior centers by public transit in Philadelphia," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 245-258.
    14. Verbich, David & El-Geneidy, Ahmed, 2017. "Public transit fare structure and social vulnerability in Montreal, Canada," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 43-53.
    15. Zhao, Pengjun & Zhang, Yixue, 2019. "The effects of metro fare increase on transport equity: New evidence from Beijing," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 73-83.
    16. Xiaoshu Cao & Huiling Chen & Feiwen Liang & Wulin Wang, 2018. "Measurement and Spatial Differentiation Characteristics of Transit Equity: A Case Study of Guangzhou, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-17, April.
    17. Da Silva, Diego & Klumpenhouwer, Willem & Karner, Alex & Robinson, Mitchell & Liu, Rick & Shalaby, Amer, 2022. "Living on a fare: Modeling and quantifying the effects of fare budgets on transit access and equity," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    18. Allen, Jeff & Farber, Steven, 2019. "Sizing up transport poverty: A national scale accounting of low-income households suffering from inaccessibility in Canada, and what to do about it," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 214-223.
    19. Mengying Cui & David Levinson, 2019. "Measuring Full Cost Accessibility by Auto," Working Papers 2019-02, University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group.
    20. Pereira, Rafael H.M., 2019. "Future accessibility impacts of transport policy scenarios: Equity and sensitivity to travel time thresholds for Bus Rapid Transit expansion in Rio de Janeiro," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 321-332.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:106:y:2023:i:c:s0966692322002319. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-transport-geography .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.