Spatial investigation of the temporal urban form to assess impact on transit services and public transportation access

Abstract

The rapid urban growth in developing city increases the requirement of the efficient and sustainable public transportation system. The urban growth affects the urban form, which indicates the change in human and urban development activity. Urban form affects directly and indirectly access to the public transportation system as an assessment of potential riders and proximity to stops increase transit services users. Therefore, access is one of the important aspects for the assessment of transit service efficiency. Public transportation access can be represented by a coverage area and useful to estimate potential riders of public transportation. In this study, a Geographical Information System (GIS)-based spatial statistical analysis method is used to examine the spatial relationship of different urban form indicators with population or riders of transit service in a coverage area and to ascertain how urban form influences public transportation trips in this coverage area. The coverage area is delineated using a GIS-based road/street network distance approach. The spatial analysis results suggested that urban forms have certain impact on trips in coverage area at both ward level and zone level. The statistical analysis implies that significant and positive values of spatial lag coefficient indicate a positive spatial interaction between wards and variable like total coverage area; worker density have shown positive and significant effects on trips of public transportation.