01662520

Component

This paper dissects the disparity in accessibility between transit and automobiles, to understand factors including traffic conditions, transit frequencies, and transit infrastructure that affect the accessibility gap and transit competitiveness. Trips between selected activity centers in Atlanta and Seattle were measured from 7 am to 10 pm to be used as two example cities. Google Application Program Interface (API) was used to estimate travel time, speed, and distance for each trip. Transit and automobile accessibility between 24 origin-desination (OD) pairs in Atlanta and 19 OD pairs in Seattle was calculated using the ratio of travel time, including transit access time and parking penalties. The results suggest the gap between transit and auto accessibility is smallest in morning and afternoon peak hours. Transit travel time and route circuitousness is reduced during peak hours while the automobile has significantly longer travel times during that period. Standalone transit parameters in Atlanta are better than those in Seattle, but when compared to local automobile parameters, Seattle’s transit proves more competitive against automobiles. High quality transit services are also distributed more consistently across the system in Seattle than in Atlanta. This paper demonstrates the importance of comparing transit and system performance to other locally available modes and looking at the distribution of service qualities.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AP015 Standing Committee on Transit Capacity and Quality of Service.

18-00005

English

16p

2018

Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References

Accessibility; Application programming interfaces; Automobiles; Origin and destination; Public transit; Software; Travel time

Atlanta (Georgia); Seattle (Washington)

Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2018 Paper #18-00005

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 8 2018 10:02AM