IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v120y2019icp31-42.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A spatially-explicit method for analyzing the equity of transit commuters' accessibility

Author

Listed:
  • Ben-Elia, Eran
  • Benenson, Itzhak

Abstract

Equity is a critical dimension of accessibility assessment related to changes in transportation investments. We estimate equity based on a spatially-explicit computation of door to door travel times, in the metropolitan area, by car and by public transit at a resolution of individual buildings as origin and destination pairs. The Gini index and two new developed indices – the absolute and normalized accessibility loss are applied to evaluate the equity effects related to changes in the transit service. The method is tested in a case study of a recent bus line reform in the Metropolitan area of Tel Aviv highlighting areas where job accessibility by transit improved or declined. The implications of equity assessments for transportation planning and the assessment of infrastructure investments are further discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Ben-Elia, Eran & Benenson, Itzhak, 2019. "A spatially-explicit method for analyzing the equity of transit commuters' accessibility," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 31-42.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:120:y:2019:i:c:p:31-42
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2018.11.017
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856418304750
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2018.11.017?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Soora Rasouli & Harry Timmermans, 2014. "Activity-based models of travel demand: promises, progress and prospects," International Journal of Urban Sciences, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 31-60, March.
    2. Nikolaos Thomopoulos & Susan Grant-Muller, 2013. "Incorporating equity as part of the wider impacts in transport infrastructure assessment: an application of the SUMINI approach," Transportation, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 315-345, February.
    3. Guzman, Luis A. & Oviedo, Daniel & Rivera, Carlos, 2017. "Assessing equity in transport accessibility to work and study: The Bogotá region," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 236-246.
    4. Deakin, Elizabeth, 2007. "Equity and Environmental Justice in Sustainable Transportation: Toward A Research Agenda," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt9607n3t9, University of California Transportation Center.
    5. Mark Burkey, 2012. "Decomposing geographic accessibility into component parts: methods and an application to hospitals," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 48(3), pages 783-800, June.
    6. Karner, Alex & Niemeier, Deb, 2013. "Civil rights guidance and equity analysis methods for regional transportation plans: a critical review of literature and practice," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 126-134.
    7. Manaugh, Kevin & Badami, Madhav G. & El-Geneidy, Ahmed M., 2015. "Integrating social equity into urban transportation planning: A critical evaluation of equity objectives and measures in transportation plans in North America," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 167-176.
    8. Lättman, Katrin & Olsson, Lars E. & Friman, Margareta, 2016. "Development and test of the Perceived Accessibility Scale (PAC) in public transport," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 257-263.
    9. Wang, Chih-Hao & Chen, Na, 2015. "A GIS-based spatial statistical approach to modeling job accessibility by transportation mode: case study of Columbus, Ohio," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 1-11.
    10. Floridea Di Ciommo & Yoram Shiftan, 2017. "Transport equity analysis," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 139-151, March.
    11. Rebecca C W Kwok & Anthony G O Yeh, 2004. "The Use of Modal Accessibility Gap as an Indicator for Sustainable Transport Development," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(5), pages 921-936, May.
    12. R. Camporeale & L. Caggiani & A. Fonzone & M. Ottomanelli, 2017. "Quantifying the impacts of horizontal and vertical equity in transit route planning," Transportation Planning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(1), pages 28-44, January.
    13. Yang, Wenyue & Chen, Bi Yu & Cao, Xiaoshu & Li, Tao & Li, Peng, 2017. "The spatial characteristics and influencing factors of modal accessibility gaps: A case study for Guangzhou, China," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 21-32.
    14. Welch, Timothy F. & Mishra, Sabyasachee, 2013. "A measure of equity for public transit connectivity," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 29-41.
    15. de Jong, Gerard & Daly, Andrew & Pieters, Marits & van der Hoorn, Toon, 2007. "The logsum as an evaluation measure: Review of the literature and new results," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 41(9), pages 874-889, November.
    16. Merlin, Louis A. & Levine, Jonathan & Grengs, Joe, 2018. "Accessibility analysis for transportation projects and plans," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 35-48.
    17. Thomopoulos, Nikolaos & Grant-Muller, Susan, 2013. "Incorporating equity as part of the wider impacts in transport infrastructure assessment: an application of the SUMINI approach," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60073, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. S Kiavash Fayyaz S. & Xiaoyue Cathy Liu & Guohui Zhang, 2017. "An efficient General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) enabled algorithm for dynamic transit accessibility analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-22, October.
    19. Cheng, Shaowu & Xie, Bing & Bie, Yiming & Zhang, Yaping & Zhang, Shen, 2018. "Measure dynamic individual spatial-temporal accessibility by public transit: Integrating time-table and passenger departure time," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 235-247.
    20. Chen, Jie & Ni, Jianhua & Xi, Changbai & Li, Siqian & Wang, Jiechen, 2017. "Determining intra-urban spatial accessibility disparities in multimodal public transport networks," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 123-133.
    21. Q Shen, 1998. "Location Characteristics of Inner-City Neighborhoods and Employment Accessibility of Low-Wage Workers," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 25(3), pages 345-365, June.
    22. Seongman Jang & Youngsoo An & Changhyo Yi & Seungil Lee, 2017. "Assessing the spatial equity of Seoul’s public transportation using the Gini coefficient based on its accessibility," International Journal of Urban Sciences, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 91-107, January.
    23. Owen, Andrew & Levinson, David M., 2015. "Modeling the commute mode share of transit using continuous accessibility to jobs," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 110-122.
    24. 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.
    25. Itzhak Benenson & Karel Martens & Yodan Rofé & Ariela Kwartler, 2011. "Public transport versus private car GIS-based estimation of accessibility applied to the Tel Aviv metropolitan area," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 47(3), pages 499-515, December.
    26. Foth, Nicole & Manaugh, Kevin & El-Geneidy, Ahmed M., 2013. "Towards equitable transit: examining transit accessibility and social need in Toronto, Canada, 1996–2006," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 1-10.
    27. Kaplan, Sigal & Popoks, Dmitrijs & Prato, Carlo Giacomo & Ceder, Avishai (Avi), 2014. "Using connectivity for measuring equity in transit provision," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 82-92.
    28. 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.
    29. Jiangping Zhou & Ying Long, 2016. "Losers and Pareto optimality in optimising commuting patterns," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(12), pages 2511-2529, September.
    30. Manout, Ouassim & Bonnel, Patrick & Bouzouina, Louafi, 2018. "Transit accessibility: A new definition of transit connectors," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 88-100.
    31. 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.
    32. Mondschein, Andrew & Taylor, Brian D., 2017. "Is traffic congestion overrated? Examining the highly variable effects of congestion on travel and accessibility," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 65-76.
    33. Mavoa, Suzanne & Witten, Karen & McCreanor, Tim & O’Sullivan, David, 2012. "GIS based destination accessibility via public transit and walking in Auckland, New Zealand," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 15-22.
    34. Dong, Xiaojing & Ben-Akiva, Moshe E. & Bowman, John L. & Walker, Joan L., 2006. "Moving from trip-based to activity-based measures of accessibility," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 163-180, February.
    35. Ricciardi, Anthony Michael & Xia, Jianhong(Cecilia) & Currie, Graham, 2015. "Exploring public transport equity between separate disadvantaged cohorts: a case study in Perth, Australia," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 111-122.
    36. Salonen, Maria & Toivonen, Tuuli, 2013. "Modelling travel time in urban networks: comparable measures for private car and public transport," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 143-153.
    37. Caggiani, Leonardo & Camporeale, Rosalia & Ottomanelli, Michele, 2017. "Facing equity in transportation Network Design Problem: A flexible constraints based model," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 9-17.
    38. Taylor, Brian D & Garrett, Mark, 1999. "Reconsidering Social Equity in Public Transit," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt2bm7b38n, University of California Transportation Center.
    39. Alan T. Murray & Rex Davis, 2001. "Equity in Regional Service Provision," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 557-600, November.
    40. Karel Martens, 2012. "Justice in transport as justice in accessibility: applying Walzer’s ‘Spheres of Justice’ to the transport sector," Transportation, Springer, vol. 39(6), pages 1035-1053, November.
    41. van Wee, Bert, 2016. "Accessible accessibility research challenges," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 9-16.
    42. Tijs Neutens & Tim Schwanen & Frank Witlox & Philippe De Maeyer, 2010. "Equity of Urban Service Delivery: A Comparison of Different Accessibility Measures," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(7), pages 1613-1635, July.
    43. Delbosc, Alexa & Currie, Graham, 2011. "Using Lorenz curves to assess public transport equity," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 1252-1259.
    44. Karen Lucas & Bert Wee & Kees Maat, 2016. "A method to evaluate equitable accessibility: combining ethical theories and accessibility-based approaches," Transportation, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 473-490, May.
    45. Karen Witten & Jamie Pearce & Peter Day, 2011. "Neighbourhood Destination Accessibility Index: A GIS Tool for Measuring Infrastructure Support for Neighbourhood Physical Activity," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(1), pages 205-223, January.
    46. Silva, Cecília & Bertolini, Luca & te Brömmelstroet, Marco & Milakis, Dimitris & Papa, Enrica, 2017. "Accessibility instruments in planning practice: Bridging the implementation gap," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 135-145.
    47. Deboosere, Robbin & El-Geneidy, Ahmed M. & Levinson, David, 2018. "Accessibility-oriented development," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 11-20.
    48. Lucas, Karen, 2012. "Transport and social exclusion: Where are we now?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 105-113.
    49. Wei, Ran & Liu, Xiaoyue & Mu, Yongjian & Wang, Liming & Golub, Aaron & Farber, Steven, 2017. "Evaluating public transit services for operational efficiency and access equity," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 70-79.
    50. Pereira, Rafael Henrique Moreas, 2018. "Future accessibility impacts of transport policy scenarios: equity and sensitivity to travel time thresholds for Bus Rapid Transit expansion in Rio de Janeiro," OSF Preprints sut7r, Center for Open Science.
    51. Xia, Jianhong(Cecilia) & Nesbitt, Joshua & Daley, Rebekah & Najnin, Arfanara & Litman, Todd & Tiwari, Surya Prasad, 2016. "A multi-dimensional view of transport-related social exclusion: A comparative study of Greater Perth and Sydney," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 205-221.
    52. Mizuki Kawabata & Qing Shen, 2007. "Commuting Inequality between Cars and Public Transit: The Case of the San Francisco Bay Area, 1990-2000," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(9), pages 1759-1780, August.
    53. Martens, Karel & Golub, Aaron & Robinson, Glenn, 2012. "A justice-theoretic approach to the distribution of transportation benefits: Implications for transportation planning practice in the United States," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 684-695.
    54. Dadashpoor, Hashem & Rostami, Faramarz, 2017. "Measuring spatial proportionality between service availability, accessibility and mobility: Empirical evidence using spatial equity approach in Iran," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 44-55.
    55. Saghapour, Tayebeh & Moridpour, Sara & Thompson, Russell G., 2016. "Public transport accessibility in metropolitan areas: A new approach incorporating population density," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 273-285.
    56. Ruiz, Maurici & Segui-Pons, Joana Maria & Mateu-LLadó, Jaume, 2017. "Improving Bus Service Levels and social equity through bus frequency modelling," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 220-233.
    57. Abdul Rawoof Pinjari & Chandra R. Bhat, 2011. "Activity-based Travel Demand Analysis," Chapters, in: André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Roger Vickerman (ed.), A Handbook of Transport Economics, chapter 10, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    58. Fransen, Koos & Neutens, Tijs & Farber, Steven & De Maeyer, Philippe & Deruyter, Greet & Witlox, Frank, 2015. "Identifying public transport gaps using time-dependent accessibility levels," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 176-187.
    59. Gillian Bristow & John Farrington & Jon Shaw & Tim Richardson, 2009. "Developing an Evaluation for Crosscutting Policy Goals: The Accessibility Policy Assessment Tool," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 41(1), pages 48-62, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. 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.
    2. 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," SocArXiv ua2gj, Center for Open Science.
    3. Carleton, Phillip R. & Porter, J. David, 2018. "A comparative analysis of the challenges in measuring transit equity: definitions, interpretations, and limitations," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 64-75.
    4. Liu, Chengliang & Duan, Dezhong, 2020. "Spatial inequality of bus transit dependence on urban streets and its relationships with socioeconomic intensities: A tale of two megacities in China," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    5. Sharma, Gajanand & Patil, Gopal R., 2021. "Public transit accessibility approach to understand the equity for public healthcare services: A case study of Greater Mumbai," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    6. Cascetta, Ennio & Cartenì, Armando & Henke, Ilaria & Pagliara, Francesca, 2020. "Economic growth, transport accessibility and regional equity impacts of high-speed railways in Italy: ten years ex post evaluation and future perspectives," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 412-428.
    7. Gallo, Mariano, 2018. "Improving equity of urban transit systems with the adoption of origin-destination based taxi fares," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 38-55.
    8. Deboosere, Robbin & El-Geneidy, Ahmed, 2018. "Evaluating equity and accessibility to jobs by public transport across Canada," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 54-63.
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. Ilaria Henke & Armando Cartenì & Clorinda Molitierno & Assunta Errico, 2020. "Decision-Making in the Transport Sector: A Sustainable Evaluation Method for Road Infrastructure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-19, January.
    12. Jun Yang & Andong Guo & Xueming Li & Tai Huang, 2018. "Study of the Impact of a High-Speed Railway Opening on China’s Accessibility Pattern and Spatial Equality," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-13, August.
    13. Camporeale, Rosalia & Caggiani, Leonardo & Ottomanelli, Michele, 2019. "Modeling horizontal and vertical equity in the public transport design problem: A case study," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 184-206.
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. Lee, Hasik & Park, Ho-Chul & Kho, Seung-Young & Kim, Dong-Kyu, 2019. "Assessing transit competitiveness in Seoul considering actual transit travel times based on smart card data," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    17. Nazari Adli, Saeid & Donovan, Stuart, 2018. "Right to the city: Applying justice tests to public transport investments," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 56-65.
    18. Maharjan, Sanju & Tilahun, Nebiyou & Ermagun, Alireza, 2022. "Spatial equity of modal access gap to multiple destination types across Chicago," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    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. Sun, Zhe & Zacharias, John, 2020. "Transport equity as relative accessibility in a megacity: Beijing," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 8-19.

    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:transa:v:120:y:2019:i:c:p:31-42. 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: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    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.