ANALYZING THE EFFECT OF TRANSIT STATION’S LOCATION ON WALKING ACCESSIBILITY

Abstract

Transit-oriented development (TOD) is a need of the modern world. It has the potential to solve traffic related problems in compliance with sustainability. In this study the effect of transit station location, in an urban environment, on walking accessibility has been evaluated. The study has assessed the accessibility using a PedShed/Pedestrian Catchment concept rather the circular buffer concept. The PedShed/Pedestrian Catchment concept utilizes the path followed through the actual road network, unlike the circular buffer that relies on the radial path. This gives the accessible area around the station based on the actual road network conditions. The evaluation is based on two accessibility indicators as: Ideal Station Accessibility Index (ISAI) and Pedestrian Route Directness (PRD), to get an effect of station location on walking accessibility. The ISAI shows the accessible road density around the station while the PRD shows its walk efficiency. As a case study, we have selected the Rawalpindi-Islamabad bus rapid transit that is located in Pakistan. It is observed that ISAI and PRD have different values for stations in different environments. These values were analyzed for the effect of station location and activity types. It is concluded that accessibility indices have better values in locations having the dense spider-net type of road network than the grid-iron type network. The paucity of direct pedestrian routes and the presence of activities like an electricity grid station, army depot, major interchange, and large premises near the station breaks the continuity in the road network that badly affects walking accessibility.