Assessment of Service Areas for Bicycle Accessibility to Transit Stations

摘要

Accessibility to a transit service is a key factor in a traveler's choice on transportation mode anduse of public transportation, where service areas are commonly used to visualize accessibility totransit stations. While modeling of service areas for pedestrians has s been discussed in thetransportation literature, the analysis of bicycle service areas to access transit services is stillrelatively unexplored. However, for the design of mobility hubs, which are major transit accesspoints, better knowledge of bicycle service areas is essential for the appropriate planning ofbicycle infrastructure nearby. While cycling distances to such mobility hubs are assumed to besomewhere between one and two miles in long term range planning documents, a more accurateassessment of bicycle access distances is necessary. This paper uses two on-board surveys fromthe Los Angeles and Atlanta regions to derive cycling distances to transit stations. Results showthat the presumed 1-2 mile (1600-3200m) radius is a good match with observed distances for theAtlanta region, but that it underestimates observed cycling distances to train transit services inthe Los Angeles area with an average cycling distance of 4436m. A linear regression model thatestimates cycling distances to transit station was developed which shows that cycling distance isaffected by household characteristics, structure of the street and transit network along the accessroute and around the transit station, and time of the day. Variable service areas generated fromthe model results can be used to identify more realistc bicycle catchment areas around plannedmobility hubs.