IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirb/v52y2025i4p882-898.html

Accessibility derivative: Measuring the accessibility contribution of public transit routes

Author

Listed:
  • Luyu Liu
  • Harvey J Miller

Abstract

Accessibility is one of the most essential objectives of public transit systems as the transit service’s useability and service quality. The accessibility of transit systems as a whole is well understood; however, it is still unclear how each route contributes to the system-wide accessibility. Meanwhile, with a higher risk of disruptions and more uncertainties from climate change and other disruptions, there is an urgent need to systematically study the impacts of service change with the contribution of each route to general accessibility. To address this gap, we introduce the accessibility derivative , a model-agnostic measure of the contribution of each route in a transit system. We define the derivative of a route as the systemwide change in accessibility after removing the route from the system. We demonstrate how to calculate the derivative numerically from widely available public transit schedule and automated passenger count data. The measure reflects the inherent structure of a transit system and reveals the impacts of potential route-level service changes. The results provide firsthand evidence on public transit assessment and planning, including performance assessment, schedule redesign, and planning transfers.

Suggested Citation

  • Luyu Liu & Harvey J Miller, 2025. "Accessibility derivative: Measuring the accessibility contribution of public transit routes," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 52(4), pages 882-898, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:52:y:2025:i:4:p:882-898
    DOI: 10.1177/23998083241272098
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23998083241272098
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/23998083241272098?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. Derrible, Sybil & Kennedy, Christopher, 2010. "The complexity and robustness of metro networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(17), pages 3678-3691.
    2. Joaquín de Cea & Enrique Fernández, 1993. "Transit Assignment for Congested Public Transport Systems: An Equilibrium Model," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(2), pages 133-147, May.
    3. Kapatsila, Bogdan & Palacios, Manuel Santana & Grisé, Emily & El-Geneidy, Ahmed, 2023. "Resolving the accessibility dilemma: Comparing cumulative and gravity-based measures of accessibility in eight Canadian cities," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    4. Luyu Liu & Harvey J Miller & Jonathan Scheff, 2020. "The impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on public transit demand in the United States," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-22, November.
    5. Widener, Michael J. & Farber, Steven & Neutens, Tijs & Horner, Mark, 2015. "Spatiotemporal accessibility to supermarkets using public transit: an interaction potential approach in Cincinnati, Ohio," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 72-83.
    6. Liu, Luyu & Porr, Adam & Miller, Harvey J., 2024. "Measuring the impacts of disruptions on public transit accessibility and reliability," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    7. Michael Taylor & Somenahalli Sekhar & Glen D'Este, 2006. "Application of Accessibility Based Methods for Vulnerability Analysis of Strategic Road Networks," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 267-291, September.
    8. Liu, Luyu & Kar, Armita & Tokey, Ahmad Ilderim & Le, Huyen T.K. & Miller, Harvey J., 2023. "Disparities in public transit accessibility and usage by people with mobility disabilities: An evaluation using high-resolution transit data," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    9. 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.
    10. Ichoua, Soumia & Gendreau, Michel & Potvin, Jean-Yves, 2003. "Vehicle dispatching with time-dependent travel times," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 379-396, January.
    11. Nicholson, Alan & Du, Zhen-Ping, 1997. "Degradable transportation systems: An integrated equilibrium model," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 209-223, June.
    12. Banister, David, 2008. "The sustainable mobility paradigm," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 73-80, March.
    13. Eric J. Miller, 2018. "Accessibility: measurement and application in transportation planning," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(5), pages 551-555, September.
    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. Luyu Liu & Adam Porr & Harvey J. Miller, 2023. "Realizable accessibility: evaluating the reliability of public transit accessibility using high-resolution real-time data," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 429-451, July.
    2. Liu, Luyu & Porr, Adam & Miller, Harvey J., 2024. "Measuring the impacts of disruptions on public transit accessibility and reliability," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    3. Tammaru, Tiit & Sevtsuk, Andres & Witlox, Frank, 2023. "Towards an equity-centred model of sustainable mobility: Integrating inequality and segregation challenges in the green mobility transition," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    4. Ryan, Jean & Martens, Karel, 2023. "Defining and implementing a sufficient level of accessibility: What’s stopping us?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    5. Daniel (Jian) Sun & Yuhan Zhao & Qing-Chang Lu, 2015. "Vulnerability Analysis of Urban Rail Transit Networks: A Case Study of Shanghai, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(6), pages 1-18, May.
    6. Hui Jeong Ha & Jinhyung Lee & Junghwan Kim & Youngjoon Kim, 2022. "Uncovering Inequalities in Food Accessibility between Koreans and Japanese in 1930s Colonial Seoul Using GIS and Open-Source Transport Analytics Tools," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-25, September.
    7. Cohen, Tom, 2020. "Tools for addressing transport inequality: A novel variant of accessibility measurement," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    8. Asgharpour, Sina & Askari, Sajad & Mohammadian, Abolfazl (Kouros), 2025. "Who stays loyal to transit? Understanding preference-based heterogeneity in service satisfaction," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    9. Yu Miao & Anning Ni, 2019. "Vulnerability Analysis of Intercity Multimode Transportation Networks; A Case Study of the Yangtze River Delta," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-16, April.
    10. Negm, Hisham & De Vos, Jonas & Pot, Felix & El-Geneidy, Ahmed, 2025. "Perceived accessibility: A literature review," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    11. Singh, Suraj Shirodkar & Javanmard, Reyhane & Lee, Jinhyung & Kim, Junghwan & Diab, Ehab, 2021. "The new BRT system has led to an overall increase in transit-based accessibility to essential services during the COVID-19 pandemic: Empirical evidence from Winnipeg, Canada," OSF Preprints anjd7, Center for Open Science.
    12. Kar, Armita & Motoyama, Yasuyuki & Carrel, Andre L. & Miller, Harvey J. & Le, Huyen T. K., 2021. "Impact of COVID-19 on Food Shopping: A Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Changes in Travel to Supermarket and Grocery Stores," OSF Preprints 4hw8p, Center for Open Science.
    13. Ding, Rui & Zhou, Tao & Zhang, Yilin & Du, YiMing & Chen, Shihui & Fu, Jun & Du, Linyu & Zhang, Ting & Li, Tongfei, 2022. "The influence of average speed ratio on multilayer traffic network," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 594(C).
    14. Malandri, Caterina & Mantecchini, Luca & Postorino, Maria Nadia, 2023. "A comprehensive approach to assess transportation system resilience towards disruptive events. Case study on airside airport systems," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 109-122.
    15. Kashin Sugishita & Yasuo Asakura, 2021. "Vulnerability studies in the fields of transportation and complex networks: a citation network analysis," Public Transport, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 1-34, March.
    16. Mostafa Bababeik & Mohammad Mahdi Nasiri & Navid Khademi & Anthony Chen, 2019. "Vulnerability evaluation of freight railway networks using a heuristic routing and scheduling optimization model," Transportation, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 1143-1170, August.
    17. Barboza, Matheus H.C. & Carneiro, Mariana S. & Falavigna, Claudio & Luz, Gregório & Orrico, Romulo, 2021. "Balancing time: Using a new accessibility measure in Rio de Janeiro," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    18. Jasso Chávez, José Arturo & Manaugh, Kevin, 2025. "How does the spatial scale impact accessibility analysis and equity? The case of accessibility to supermarkets in Montreal," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    19. Marek Ogryzek & Daria Adamska-Kmieć & Anna Klimach, 2020. "Sustainable Transport: An Efficient Transportation Network—Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-14, October.
    20. Alberto Dianin & Elisa Ravazzoli & Georg Hauger, 2021. "Implications of Autonomous Vehicles for Accessibility and Transport Equity: A Framework Based on Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:sae:envirb:v:52:y:2025:i:4:p:882-898. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.