Campus accessibility: the supply and demand of accessible transit for post secondary students in the Toronto Region

Abstract

<p>Transit Accessibility is the temporally sensitive ratio between a transit system's supply over its ridership demand. Empirical measures of how well a system can meet the needs of its population is important for policymakers and planners to improve transit use within cities and reduce vehicle externalities. The requirement for accessibility is to reach a station in a reasonable time/distance, travel along the route and arriving at a final location with enough time to walk/reach your destination within a specified time. The 1-hour campus-commute trips of transit-dependent students are chosen as the subject in this study, exclusive to students and campuses in the Toronto Region. Accessibility is determined by a model which produces an Accessibility Ration Score (ARS). The ARS describes an area's accessibility of transit for specific population. The visualization of this data reveals potential shortcomings, opportunities, and successes, of Toronto's public transit system. The work suggests that significant improvements are needed in the existing transit system to be considered accessible to students.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Keywords: planning, transportation, transit, urban planning, spatial analysis, GIS, GTFS, Network, systems, student, post-secondary, accessibility, access, commute, travel, campus, transit equity, education, Toronto</p>