Measuring Realistic Transit Network Connectivity: A View with Travel Time Reliability

Ridership growth is one of the major goals of public transit agencies across North America. In this paper, we examine a key contributor in potential transit riders' mode choice -- the connectivity of a transit system in time and space. We propose a comprehensive transit connectivity measure from a rider's perspective, synthesizing spatial route design, service schedules and travel time reliability. We demonstrate that travel time reliability, typically overlooked in existing connectivity measures, is highly important in evaluating transit service and understanding ridership. We explore both stop level and system level connectivity measures, and demonstrate the compelling insights from these measures using detailed transit data from a mid-sized city.