Walking distances to public transport in smaller and larger Norwegian cities

Abstract

• Analyses of four Norwegian self-contained cities with 28,000–1,020,000 inhabitants. • Surveys at public transport stops and of commuters. • Walking trips to local public transport stops last 4.1–6.0 min on average. • Walking trips to railway stations last 6.6–8.6 min on average. • Walking distances to local public transport increase with increasing city size. • Short walks increase the probability of using public transport for commutes. This paper contributes to the scarce empirical knowledge concerning distances and durations of walking trips to public transport in smaller cities and in European cities. Results show that walking trips to local public transport stops last 4.1–6.0 min (328–520 m), on average, in different cities, and walking trips to railway stations last 6.6–8.6 min (528–688 m). Walks are longer on the workplace side than on the home side of the journey. Walking distances to local public transport stops increase with city size. Short trips to stops increase the likelihood of using public transport for commutes. Survey results suggest that higher frequencies and direct connections are more important than shorter walks to stops to make more people commute by public transport in the smaller cities. The results may be relevant for smaller and larger cities aiming to improve public transport competitiveness versus the private car on commutes.