Accessibility of transit stops with multiple feeder modes: Walking and private-bike cycling

Abstract

The accessibility of transit stops (ATS) is a critical index for the evaluation of transit service, focusing on the first/last mile portions of transit trips. It is significantly affected by feeder modes, such as walking and cycling. Comparison of the application of different modes has been addressed in previous research, thus there is mostly only one feeder mode considered in this case study. This study has proposed a model for ATS with multiple feeder modes (ATSMFM), capable of integrating multiple feeder modes and considering the heterogeneity of travellers from the perspective of city managers. It is a bi-level model, combining cumulative and utility-based approaches. The final form of ATSMFM is developed referring to the cumulative approach, while the determination of the catchment area is utility-based. A numerical experiment has been conducted to demonstrate the necessity and applicability of ATSMFM. The results show that the ATS with a single feeder mode, such as cycling or walking, underestimates the catchment area of nearly one-third or twothirds of travellers. As for ATSMFM, this proposed approach can automatically select the feeder mode from alternatives according to traveller attributes, thus removing the limitation of a single feeder mode, and is suitable for calculating ATS in the complex environment with multiple feeder modes. Besides, the ATSMFM model can support city managers with different emphases in transit planning via flexibly setting the threshold.