Public Transport Accessibility Level (PTAL) Based Mapping and Analysis of Rawalpindi and Islamabad

Abstract

Easy access to the public transport network is key issue faced by the cities world over. A lot of work has been done to increase the access to public transport network. However, there lies a research gap in the case of Pakistan, where poor access to the public transport network has caused people to buy more and more cars. Thus, adding millions of cars on the inadequate road network of larger cities, causing congestion and parking problems on both major and minor roads. Similar situation has emerged in the twin cities because of insufficiency of good accessible public transport network. With this perspective, this study tries to map the accessibility to the public transport network for Rawalpindi. The method used for this purpose was the Public Transport Accessibility Levels (PTAL). After the mapping of accessibility, underserved regions were identified. The research suggests changes in the existing public transport route network in order to improve accessibility. The suggested changes in the public transport network reduces the poor accessible region from 80.18% to 69.9%. Service area analysis was done for the original and the modified public transport network. After the modification of public transport network the served area increased from 61% to 70%. The population and area served by different public transport network changes are also estimated. The results of the study can be used by local authorities to improve the existing public transport network and to identify the parking restriction zones.