A Novel Model for Accessibility of Bus Station and Its Application to Bottlenecks Identification: A Case Study in Harbin

Accessibility plays a crucial role in evaluating and optimizing the service quality of public transport systems. Traditionally, bus accessibility research studies mainly focus on the evaluation from the perspective of the aggregate model and analyze the service radius of the site considering the front end of travel. This paper aims to model microlevel bus accessibility calculation and accurate bottleneck station identification according to the opportunity method with AVL (Automatic Vehicle Location) data. The research featured the following control elements: (1) redefining bus accessibility with bus station as the research object; (2) running time between interstation sections is selected as the control index; (3) A new measure index of accessibility. The farthest direct reachable distance is proposed. Moreover, by introducing the quality control algorithm, the study establishes a model of upper and lower limits of accessibility based on the probability index of bilateral norms, which can be employed to identify the bottleneck stations according to the significance level. Harbin City is selected as the case study for methodology verification and shows that the accessibility method is effective and reliable. Additionally, by taking the travel demand in the region as the adjustment parameter of the quality control algorithm, the study demonstrates the ideal accessibility interval of stations and accurately locates all bottlenecks. The study presented here adds to our understanding of accessibility in the construction and management of buses and provides an essential reference for the following optimization.