Spatial analysis of public transportation infrastructure in Santiago, Chile, using the continuous approximation method

Abstract

Santiago, the capital city of Chile, has seven million inhabitants in an area of 850 km2. This city has a metro network with seven lines extending 140 kilometers and transports approximately 2.6 million people daily. The bus system has undergone significant transformations over the last three decades. The most relevant change having been Transantiago, the public transportation system implemented in 2007 for Santiago, Child, which combines the use of Metro and buses (BRT). Metropolitan Mobility Network (called Red) is the latest version of the public transportation plan. This paper aims to analyze the current subway infrastructure using the continuous approximation method for Santiago, Chile. We previously proposed a macroscopic methodology to identify the needs for an adequate level of service in urban mobility and transportation, and we applied it to Santiago’s Metro network. Our work focuses on functionality and demand distribution. Santiago’s demand varies spatially in volume and extension throughout the city. Using the latest origin-destination survey from 2012, we deduct the critical components in this current network structure. It is worth mentioning that the Metro design bases its network on a ring-radial structure. With our macroscopic model applied to Santiago, Chile, we have detected infrastructure needs in the current transit network. The supply of infrastructure should increase for two reasons: first, to achieve balanced cost levels between users and the agency and second, to reduce subway occupations. The optimal model outcomes for Santiago define the optimal network in which the system requires five rings and ten end-to-end longitudinal lines (20 radial routes), including lower levels of occupation. The obtained results are a good preliminary solution, considering the subway infrastructure supply could be sub-estimated in the public transportation plan.