A Methodological Framework for Determination of Public Transport Accessibility Index

Rapid urbanization along with the population growth increases the pressure on existing transportation systems which boosts the needs for the provision of a well-connected and efficient Public Transport Systems (PTSs) to meet the mobility needs of the people. In this framework, it is important for the PTSs of a region to perform at certain quality levels including availability (both spatial and temporal), accessibility, affordability, environmental protection etc. Among all these features, the most important is the accessibility to stops since access to/from the public transport is provided only through them. This paper is focused on the development of a novel methodology to evaluate the accessibility of public transport at different levels of measurements of a region/ city using Public Transport Accessibility Index (PTAI). It is developed based on the accessibility of public transport stops to the population, service centers and connectivity to nearby regions. The proposed approach is effective in terms of highlighting the least accessible areas towards the improvement of existing public transport connections or planning of new services. An application of proposed methodology has been presented using a mathematical example.