Paper Details

TRB 91st Annual Meeting (January 22-26, 2012)

Event Number:	539
Event Title:	Bicycle Planning and the Built Environment
Event Date:	Jan 24 2012 10:45AM- 12:30PM
Event Location:	Hilton, International Center
Event Description:
Event Agenda:

Assessment of Service Areas for Bicycle Accessibility to Transit Stations (12-4657)

Accessibility to a transit service is a key factor in a traveler's choice on transportation mode and use of public transportation, where service areas are commonly used to visualize accessibility to transit stations. While modeling of service areas for pedestrians has been widely discussed in the transportation literature, the analysis of bicycle service areas to access transit services is still relatively unexplored. However, for the design of mobility hubs, which are major transit access points, better knowledge of bicycle service areas is essential for the appropriate planning of bicycle infrastructure nearby. While presumed cycling distances to such hubs are somewhere between one and two miles in long term range planning documents, a more accurate assessment of bicycle access distances is necessary. This paper uses two on-board surveys from the Los Angeles and Atlanta regions to derive cycling distances to transit stations. Results show that the presumed 1-2 mile (1600-3200m) radius is a good match with observed distances for the Atlanta region, but that it underestimates observed cycling distances to transit services in the Los Angeles area with a 4358m average cycling distance. A linear regression model that estimates cycling distances to transit station was developed which shows that cycling distance is affected by household characteristics, structure of the street and transit network along the route and near the transit station, and time of the day. Variable service areas generated on the model results can be used to identify the appropriate radius around mobility hubs.

Authors
Hochmair, Hartwig , University of Florida