IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jotrge/v78y2019icp8-18.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

More than travel time: New accessibility index capturing the connectivity of transit services

Author

Listed:
  • Kim, Junghwan
  • Lee, Bumsoo

Abstract

Various qualities of transit services, including travel time, frequency, and the presence of alternative paths, affect accessibility—how easily passengers can reach their destinations by transit. Traditional accessibility metrics, such as gravity-type and cumulative-opportunity indices, rely exclusively on travel time as a proxy for travel impedance, failing to consider other qualities of transit services. This study develops a comprehensive transit-based job accessibility index that accounts for the number of feasible alternative routes and their frequency in addition to in-vehicle and out-of-vehicle travel times. It uses the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data and Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm to compute these components of tract-to-tract transit trips in the Chicago Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). We demonstrate that conventional accessibility indices considering only gross travel time overestimate job accessibility in the job rich downtown area and suburban train hubs, while they tend to underestimate job accessibility in places mainly served by a suburban bus system. Logistic regression analysis shows that our refined job accessibility measure explains the likelihood of transit commute considerably better than conventional measures.

Suggested Citation

  • Kim, Junghwan & Lee, Bumsoo, 2019. "More than travel time: New accessibility index capturing the connectivity of transit services," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 8-18.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:78:y:2019:i:c:p:8-18
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2019.05.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692319300079
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2019.05.008?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Casey Dawkins & Jae Sik Jeon & Rolf Pendall, 2015. "Transportation Access, Rental Vouchers, and Neighborhood Satisfaction: Evidence From the Moving to Opportunity Experiment," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 497-530, July.
    2. Casey Dawkins & Jae Sik Jeon & Rolf Pendall, 2015. "Vehicle Access And Exposure To Neighborhood Poverty: Evidence From The Moving To Opportunity Program," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(5), pages 687-707, November.
    3. R Cervero & T Rood & B Appleyard, 1999. "Tracking Accessibility: Employment and Housing Opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 31(7), pages 1259-1278, July.
    4. Mizuki Kawabata, 2003. "Job Access and Employment among Low-Skilled Autoless Workers in US Metropolitan Areas," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 35(9), pages 1651-1668, September.
    5. Mizuki Kawabata & Qing Shen, 2006. "Job Accessibility as an Indicator of Auto-Oriented Urban Structure: A Comparison of Boston and Los Angeles with Tokyo," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 33(1), pages 115-130, February.
    6. Nelson, Peter & Baglino, Andrew & Harrington, Winston & Safirova, Elena & Lipman, Abram, 2007. "Transit in Washington, DC: Current benefits and optimal level of provision," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 231-251, September.
    7. Mavoa, Suzanne & Witten, Karen & McCreanor, Tim & O’Sullivan, David, 2012. "GIS based destination accessibility via public transit and walking in Auckland, New Zealand," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 15-22.
    8. D. J. Weiss & A. Nelson & H. S. Gibson & W. Temperley & S. Peedell & A. Lieber & M. Hancher & E. Poyart & S. Belchior & N. Fullman & B. Mappin & U. Dalrymple & J. Rozier & T. C. D. Lucas & R. E. Howes, 2018. "A global map of travel time to cities to assess inequalities in accessibility in 2015," Nature, Nature, vol. 553(7688), pages 333-336, January.
    9. Boisjoly, Geneviève & El-Geneidy, Ahmed, 2016. "Daily fluctuations in transit and job availability: A comparative assessment of time-sensitive accessibility measures," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 73-81.
    10. Cathy Macharis & Imre Keseru, 2018. "Rethinking mobility for a human city," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(3), pages 275-278, May.
    11. Fayyaz, S. Kiavash & Liu, Xiaoyue Cathy & Porter, Richard J., 2017. "Dynamic transit accessibility and transit gap causality analysis," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 27-39.
    12. Owen, Andrew & Levinson, David M., 2015. "Modeling the commute mode share of transit using continuous accessibility to jobs," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 110-122.
    13. Jens Parbo & Otto Anker Nielsen & Carlo Giacomo Prato, 2016. "Passenger Perspectives in Railway Timetabling: A Literature Review," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(4), pages 500-526, July.
    14. Chakrabarti, Sandip & Giuliano, Genevieve, 2015. "Does service reliability determine transit patronage? Insights from the Los Angeles Metro bus system," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 12-20.
    15. Fredrik Andersson & John C. Haltiwanger & Mark J. Kutzbach & Henry O. Pollakowski & Daniel H. Weinberg, 2018. "Job Displacement and the Duration of Joblessness: The Role of Spatial Mismatch," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(2), pages 203-218, May.
    16. Bumsoo Lee & Yongsung Lee, 2013. "Complementary Pricing and Land Use Policies: Does It Lead to Higher Transit Use?," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 79(4), pages 314-328, October.
    17. Fredrik Andersson & John C. Haltiwanger & Mark J. Kutzbach & Henry O. Pollakowski & Daniel H. Weinberg, 2018. "Job Displacement and the Duration of Joblessness: The Role of Spatial Mismatch," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(2), pages 203-218, May.
    18. David Levinson, 1998. "Accessibility and the Journey to Work," Working Papers 199802, University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group.
    19. Q Shen, 1998. "Location Characteristics of Inner-City Neighborhoods and Employment Accessibility of Low-Wage Workers," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 25(3), pages 345-365, June.
    20. J Black & M Conroy, 1977. "Accessibility Measures and the Social Evaluation of Urban Structure," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 9(9), pages 1013-1031, September.
    21. Ong, Paul M. & Houston, Douglas, 2002. "Transit, Employment and Women on Welfare," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt3287s046, University of California Transportation Center.
    22. Dea van Lierop & Madhav G. Badami & Ahmed M. El-Geneidy, 2018. "What influences satisfaction and loyalty in public transport? A review of the literature," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(1), pages 52-72, January.
    23. Steven I. Chien * & Zhaoqiong Qin, 2004. "Optimization of bus stop locations for improving transit accessibility," Transportation Planning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 211-227, June.
    24. Jonathan Levine & Joe Grengs & Qingyun Shen & Qing Shen, 2012. "Does Accessibility Require Density or Speed?," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 78(2), pages 157-172.
    25. Nassir, Neema & Hickman, Mark & Malekzadeh, Ali & Irannezhad, Elnaz, 2016. "A utility-based travel impedance measure for public transit network accessibility," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 26-39.
    26. Fosgerau, M. & Bierlaire, M., 2009. "Discrete choice models with multiplicative error terms," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 494-505, June.
    27. Jangik Jin & Kurt Paulsen, 2018. "Does accessibility matter? Understanding the effect of job accessibility on labour market outcomes," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(1), pages 91-115, January.
    28. Glaeser, Edward L. & Kahn, Matthew E. & Rappaport, Jordan, 2008. "Why do the poor live in cities The role of public transportation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 1-24, January.
    29. Merlin, Louis A. & Hu, Lingqian, 2017. "Does competition matter in measures of job accessibility? Explaining employment in Los Angeles," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 77-88.
    30. Karim W. F. Youssef, 2018. "The built environment and public health," Community Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(1), pages 121-122, January.
    31. Lee, Sungwon & Lee, Bumsoo, 2014. "The influence of urban form on GHG emissions in the U.S. household sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 534-549.
    32. Pathak, Rahul & Wyczalkowski, Christopher K. & Huang, Xi, 2017. "Public transit access and the changing spatial distribution of poverty," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 198-212.
    33. Guo, Zhan & Wilson, Nigel H.M., 2011. "Assessing the cost of transfer inconvenience in public transport systems: A case study of the London Underground," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 91-104, February.
    34. S L Handy & D A Niemeier, 1997. "Measuring Accessibility: An Exploration of Issues and Alternatives," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 29(7), pages 1175-1194, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dong Liu & Mei‐Po Kwan, 2020. "Measuring Job Accessibility Through Integrating Travel Time, Transit Fare And Income: A Study Of The Chicago Metropolitan Area," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 111(4), pages 671-685, September.
    2. Kim, Junghwan & Kwan, Mei-Po, 2021. "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people's mobility: A longitudinal study of the U.S. from March to September of 2020," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    3. Krenz Astrid & Strulik Holger, 2021. "The benefits of remoteness – digital mobility data, regional road infrastructure, and COVID-19 infections," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 22(3), pages 257-287, August.
    4. Salih, Samal Hama & Lee, Jinwoo (Brian), 2022. "Measuring transit accessibility: A dispersion factor to recognise the spatial distribution of accessible opportunities," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    5. Hui Jeong Ha & Jinhyung Lee & Junghwan Kim & Youngjoon Kim, 2022. "Uncovering Inequalities in Food Accessibility between Koreans and Japanese in 1930s Colonial Seoul Using GIS and Open-Source Transport Analytics Tools," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-25, September.
    6. Singh, Suraj Shirodkar & Javanmard, Reyhane & Lee, Jinhyung & Kim, Junghwan & Diab, Ehab, 2021. "The new BRT system has led to an overall increase in transit-based accessibility to essential services during the COVID-19 pandemic: Empirical evidence from Winnipeg, Canada," OSF Preprints anjd7, Center for Open Science.
    7. Sharma, Gajanand & Patil, Gopal R., 2021. "Public transit accessibility approach to understand the equity for public healthcare services: A case study of Greater Mumbai," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    8. Klar, Ben & Lee, Jinhyung & Long, Jed A. & Diab, Ehab, 2023. "The impacts of accessibility measure choice on public transit project evaluation: A comparative study of cumulative, gravity-based, and hybrid approaches," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    9. Yongyou Nie & Junhao Jiang, 2024. "The Impact of Highway Transportation Infrastructure on Carbon Emissions in the Yangtze River Delta Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-16, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Merlin, Louis A. & Hu, Lingqian, 2017. "Does competition matter in measures of job accessibility? Explaining employment in Los Angeles," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 77-88.
    2. Yan, Xiang & Bejleri, Ilir & Zhai, Liang, 2022. "A spatiotemporal analysis of transit accessibility to low-wage jobs in Miami-Dade County," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    3. Xueming (Jimmy) Chen, 2018. "Review of the Transit Accessibility Concept: A Case Study of Richmond, Virginia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-19, December.
    4. Allen, Jeff & Farber, Steven, 2019. "A measure of competitive access to destinations for comparing across multiple study regions," SocArXiv 8yf7q, Center for Open Science.
    5. Deboosere, Robbin & El-Geneidy, Ahmed, 2018. "Evaluating equity and accessibility to jobs by public transport across Canada," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 54-63.
    6. Kelobonye, Keone & Zhou, Heng & McCarney, Gary & Xia, Jianhong (Cecilia), 2020. "Measuring the accessibility and spatial equity of urban services under competition using the cumulative opportunities measure," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    7. Deboosere, Robbin & El-Geneidy, Ahmed M. & Levinson, David, 2018. "Accessibility-oriented development," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 11-20.
    8. Wessel, Nate, 2019. "Accessibility Beyond the Schedule," SocArXiv c4yvx, Center for Open Science.
    9. Boisjoly, Geneviève & El-Geneidy, Ahmed M., 2017. "The insider: A planners' perspective on accessibility," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 33-43.
    10. Allen, Jeff & Farber, Steven, 2019. "Sizing up transport poverty: A national scale accounting of low-income households suffering from inaccessibility in Canada, and what to do about it," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 214-223.
    11. Jen-Jia Lin & Chi-Hau Chen & Tsung-Yu Hsieh, 2016. "Job accessibility and ethnic minority employment in urban and rural areas in Taiwan," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(2), pages 363-382, June.
    12. Allen, Jeff & Farber, Steven, 2019. "Sizing up transport poverty: A national scale accounting of low-income households suffering from inaccessibility in Canada, and what to do about it," SocArXiv ua2gj, Center for Open Science.
    13. Stępniak, Marcin & Pritchard, John P. & Geurs, Karst T. & Goliszek, Sławomir, 2019. "The impact of temporal resolution on public transport accessibility measurement: Review and case study in Poland," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 8-24.
    14. Taylor, Brian & Osman, Taner & Thomas, Trevor & Mondschein, Andrew, 2016. "Not So Fast: A Study of Traffic Delays, Access, and Economic Activity in the San Francisco Bay Area," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt9qf2481r, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    15. Justin Tyndall, 2017. "Waiting for the R train: Public transportation and employment," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(2), pages 520-537, February.
    16. Viguié, Vincent & Liotta, Charlotte & Pfeiffer, Basile & Coulombel, Nicolas, 2023. "Can public transport improve accessibility for the poor over the long term? Empirical evidence in Paris, 1968–2010," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    17. Nassir, Neema & Hickman, Mark & Malekzadeh, Ali & Irannezhad, Elnaz, 2016. "A utility-based travel impedance measure for public transit network accessibility," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 26-39.
    18. Andrew Schouten, 2022. "Residential relocations and changes in vehicle ownership," Transportation, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 89-113, February.
    19. Hu, Yujie & Downs, Joni, 2019. "Measuring and visualizing place-based space-time job accessibility," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 278-288.
    20. Boisjoly, Geneviève & Serra, Bernardo & Oliveira, Gabriel T. & El-Geneidy, Ahmed, 2020. "Accessibility measurements in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba and Recife, Brazil," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:78:y:2019:i:c:p:8-18. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-transport-geography .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.