Abstract
Background: Accessibility is considered as an important indicator for the public transit service level. Transit accessibility is generally evaluated by its distance to transit access points such as bus stops and metro stations, and methods of measuring the access distances to transit points have been relying heavily on geographic data of transit facilities, built environments and pedestrian routes. Data collecting and analyzing are tedious for researchers in conventional approaches. As the application of cloud computing is on the rise, open services provided by Google Cloud Platform may simplify the procedure of accessibility measurement if the outputs of the open computing services could be validated. Aims and Objectives: This paper aims to develop a method of measuring public transit accessibility based on Google Direction API rather than local data analyzing. A mechanism of API (Application Program Interface) probing is introduced. In a case study, the metropolitan area of Beijing was sliced into gridded spaces, with transit access distance of each cell space calculated by Google Direction API. The access distances in the API feedbacks were compared with transit access numbers in each cell area in order to validate the method with their correlation coefficient. Results and Conclusion: It was found that Google Direction API generally gave shorter access distances in cell areas with more public access points. The conclusion is that open cloud services such as Google Direction API may serve as alternative solutions to public transit accessibility measurement. Transit researchers and agencies may take advantage of such open API services to avoid the tediousness of collecting and processing geographic data sets on transit facilities.
Highlights
Public transit accessibility is a measure of transit users’ efforts in accessing transit services [1]
It was found that Google Direction API generally gave shorter access distances in cell areas with more public access points
The conclusion is that open cloud services such as Google Direction API may serve as alternative solutions to public transit accessibility measurement
Summary
Public transit accessibility is a measure of transit users’ efforts in accessing transit services [1]. The access distances to public transit access points demonstrate spatial differences among urban areas [2]. The accessibility reflects spatial equity [3], and is regarded as a service level indicator for public transit services [4, 5]. Methods of measuring accessibility have been generally based on calculating the walking distances to the public transit access points such as bus stops and metro stations [3]. Transit accessibility is generally evaluated by its distance to transit access points such as bus stops and metro stations, and methods of measuring the access distances to transit points have been relying heavily on geographic data of transit facilities, built environments and pedestrian routes. As the application of cloud computing is on the rise, open services provided by Google Cloud Platform may simplify the procedure of accessibility measurement if the outputs of the open computing services could be validated
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