How do passenger and trip attributes affect walking distances to bus public transport stops? Evidence from university students in Greece
Abstract
The spatial arrangement of public transport systems seriously affects their ridership and thus the fulfillment of sustainable transport goals. This paper examines the case of students at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and investigates their perceptions regarding a critical spatial attribute of public transport, that is, the walking distance they have to cover to/from bus stops when they commute by bus to their campus. A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect relevant data from 300 students and a set of statistical inference methods was employed to explore whether student-specific attributes relate to the walking distances they consider to be acceptable. Empirical findings highlighted weak relationships between user/trip specific attributes with regard to students, and their walking distance preferences for the bus public transport services they use. The majority of students consider that the maximum acceptable walking distance can be higher than the standard value of 400 meters. Moreover, they would be willing to walk more than they currently do in order to reach a bus stop with higher service frequencies to their campus. The study concept and findings could assist in delivering a more successful spatial design of bus public transport systems which serve university campuses. A more sparsely positioned network of bus stops would provide better opportunities for personal physical activity but should not yield increased total travel times; and they should incorporate local user expectations. Public transport agencies could also benefit from achieving higher service speeds which, in turn, would reduce energy consumption and operating costs.
References
Alshalalfah, B., Shalaby, A. (2007). Case study: Relationship of walk access distance to transit with service, travel, and personal characteristics, Journal of Urban Planning and Development, Vol. 133, No. 2, pp. 114-118.
Amiripour, S. M. M., Mohaymany, A. S., Ceder, A. (2015). Optimal modification of urban bus network routes using a genetic algorithm, Journal of Transportation Engineering, Vol. 141, No. 3, pp. 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)TE.1943-5436.0000741
Agrawal, A. W., Schlossberg, M., Irvin, K. (2008). How Far, by Which Route and Why? A Spatial Analysis of Pedestrian Preference, Journal of Urban Design, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 81-98. https://doi.org/10.1080/13574800701804074
Badia, H., Estrada, M., Robusté, F. (2014). Competitive transit network design in cities with radial street patterns, Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Vol. 59, pp. 161–181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trb.2013.11.006
Burke, M., Brown, L. (2007). Distances people walk for transport, Road and Transport Research, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 16–29.
Daganzo, C. F. (2010). Structure of competitive transit networks, Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Vol. 44, No. 4, pp. 434–446.
Daniels, R., Mulley, C. (2013). Explaining walking distance to public transport: The dominance of public transport supply, Journal of Transport and Land Use, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 5-20.
El-Geneidy, A.M., Tétreault, P.R., Suprenant-Legault, J. (2010). Pedestrian access to transit: identifying redundancies and gaps using a variable service area analysis. Transportation Research Board 89th Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C.
European Statistical Office (Eurostat) (2020). Urban audit database [online]. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/cities/data/database [Accessed: 26 Jan 2020].
Farahani, R. Z., Miandoabchi, E., Szeto, W. Y., Rashidi, H. (2013). A review of urban transportation network design problems, European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 229, No. 2, pp. 281–302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2013.01.001
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) (2008). Report FHWA-SA-07-017: Pedestrian Safety Guide for Transit Agencies. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Transportation [online]. https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/ped_bike/ped_transit/ped_transguide/transit_guide.pdf [Accessed: 10 Feb 2020].
Georgiadis, G., Politis, I., Papaioannou, P. (2014). Measuring and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of bus public transport systems, Research in Transportation Economics, Vol. 48, pp. 84–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2014.09.035
Gil, J. (2014). Analyzing the configuration of multimodal urban networks, Geographical Analysis, Vol. 46, No. 4, pp. 368–391. https://doi.org/10.1111/gean.12062
Gutiérrez, J., Cardozo, O. D., García-Palomares, J. C. (2011). Transit ridership forecasting at station level: an approach based on distance-decay weighted regression, Journal of Transport Geography, Vol. 19, No. 6, pp. 1081–1092.
Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) (2020). Statistics Database. Hellenic Statistical Authority website [online]. https://www.statistics.gr/ [Accessed: 25 Oct 2020].
Hess, D.B. (2009). Access to public transit and its influence on ridership for older adults in two US cities, Journal of Transport and Land Use, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 3–27.
IBM Corp. Released 2017. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 25.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.
Jiang, Y., Zegras, P. C., Mehndiratta, S. (2012). Walk the line: station context, corridor type and bus rapid transit walk access in Jinan, China, Journal of Transport Geography, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2011.09.007
Kobus, M. B. W., Van Ommeren, J. N., Rietveld, P. (2015). Student commute time, university presence and academic achievement, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Vol. 52, pp. 129–140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2015.03.001
Kraft, S. (2016). Measuring and modelling the spatial accessibility of public transport stops in GIS, Hungarian Geographical Bulletin, Vol. 65, No. 1, pp. 57–69. https://doi.org/10.15201/hungeobull.65.1.5
Kramar, U., Cvahte, T., Sternad, M., Topolsek, D. (2015). Designing a strategic mobility plan for small and medium sized cities using a multi-stage methodology: case of Celje, SPATIUM, No. 33, pp. 47-54. https://doi.org/10.2298/SPAT1533047K
Lemoine, P. D., Sarmiento, O. L., Pinzón, J. D., Meisel, J. D., Montes, F., Hidalgo, D., Pratt, M., Zambrano, J.M., Cordovez, J.M., Zarama, R. (2016). TransMilenio, a Scalable Bus Rapid Transit System for Promoting Physical Activity, Journal of Urban Health, Vol. 93, No. 2, pp. 256–270. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-015-0019-4
Mapbox.com (Mapbox) (2020). Mapbox website [online]. https://www.mapbox.com/about/maps/; https://www.openstreetmap.org/about/; https://apps.mapbox.com/feedback/#/-74.5/40/10 [Accessed: 19 Oct 2020].
Municipality of Thessaloniki (MoT) (2019). Sustainable urban mobility plan of Thessaloniki 2019 [online]. https://www.svakthess.imet.gr/ [Accessed: 25 Oct 2020].
Murray, A., Davis, R, Stimson, R.J., Ferreira, L. (1998). Public Transportation Access, Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, Vol. 3, No. 5, pp. 319-328.
Murray, A., Wu, X. (2003). Accessibility tradeoffs in public transit planning, Journal of Geographical Systems, Vol. 5, pp. 93–107. https://doi.org/10.1007/s101090300105
Murray, A.T. (2003). A Coverage Model for Improving Public Transit System Accessibility and Expanding Access, Annals of Operations Research, Vol. 123, pp. 143–156. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026123329433
OpenStreetMap contributors (OSM) (2020). OpenStreetMapwebsite [online]. https://www.openstreetmap.org [Accessed: 11 Feb 2020].
Papagiannakis, A., Vitopoulou, A. (2015). An urban strategy in time of crisis: Mobility management and low-cost public space design, SPATIUM, Vol. 33, pp. 1-7.
Pitsiava‐Latinopoulou, M., Basbas, S., Gavanas, N. (2013). Implementation of alternative transport networks in university campuses: The case of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 310-323. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-12-2011-0084
Pavlyuk D. (2015). Spatial Allocation of Bus Stops: Advanced Econometric Modelling. In: W. Zamojski, J. Mazurkiewicz, J. Sugier, T. Walkowiak, J. Kacprzyk (Eds.), Theory and Engineering of Complex Systems and Dependability. DepCoS-RELCOMEX2015. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, Vol. 365. Springer, Cham, pp. 331-339. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19216-1_31
Ragaini, B. S., Sharman, M. J., Lyth, A., Jose, K. A., Blizzard, L., Peterson, C., Johnston, F. H., Palmer, A., Aryal, J., Williams, J., Marshall, E. A., Morse, M., Cleland, V. J. (2020). A mixedmethods study of the demographic and behavioural correlates of walking to a more distant bus stop, Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Vol. 6, 100164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2020.100164
Tao, T., Wang, J., Cao, X. (2020). Exploring the non-linear associations between spatial attributes and walking distance to transit, Journal of Transport Geography, Vol. 82, 102560. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2019.102560
Technical Committee CEN/TC 320: Transport-Logistics and services (2001). Transportation – Logistics and services – Public passenger transport – Service quality definition, targeting and measurement. European Standard, European Committee for Standardization.
Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, The Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) (1996). Report 19: Guidelines for the location and design of bus stops.
Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, The Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) (2013). Report 165: Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual, Third Edition.
Toskas, I., Xenidis, Y., Georgiadis, G. (2013). Stratiyikés Katefthínsis yia tin ensomátosi ton themáton piótitas stis dimósies astikés singinoníes tis Thessaloníkis: Telikí ékthesi (in Greek). Thessaloniki: Thessaloniki Public Transport Authority.
Union Internationale des Transports Publics (UITP) (2017). Urban public transport in the 21st century [online]. https://www.uitp.org/sites/default/files/cck-focus-papers-files/UITP_Statistic%20Brief_national%20PT%20stats.pdf [Accessed: 31 Jan 2020].
United Nations (UN) (2019). The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019.
Urban Transport Organization of Thessaloniki (UTOT) (2020). Online Timetables and Schedules [online]. https://oasth.gr/ [Accessed: 25 Oct 2020].
Verani, E., Pouzoukidou, G., Sdoukopoulos, A. (2015). The effect of urban density, green spaces and mobility patterns in cities’ environmental quality: an empirical study of the metropolitan area of Thessaloniki, SPATIUM, Vol. 33, pp. 8-17.
Wang, J., Cao, X. (2017). Exploring built environment correlates of walking distance of transit egress in the Twin Cities, Journal of Transport Geography, Vol. 64, pp. 132–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2017.08.013
Wang, Y., Deng, Y., Ren, F., Zhu, R., Wang, P., Du, T., Du, Q. (2020). Analysing the spatial configuration of urban bus networks based on the geospatial network analysis method, Cities, Vol. 96, 102406. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.102406
Wang, Y., Potoglou, D., Orford, S., Gong, Y. (2015). Bus stop, property price and land value tax: A multilevel hedonic analysis with quantile calibration, Land Use Policy, Vol. 42, pp. 381–391. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2014.07.017
Yang, L., Zhou, J., Shyr, O. F., Huo, (Derek) Da. (2019). Does bus accessibility affect property prices?, Cities, Vol. 84, pp. 56–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2018.07.005
Zhou, J. (2012). Sustainable commute in a car-dominant city: Factors affecting alternative mode choices among university students, Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Vol. 46, No. 7, pp. 1013–1029. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2012.04.001
