Using GTFS Data to Measure and Map Transit Accessibility

Quantifying transit accessibility is a challenging but important task for transit planners and service providers. Researchers have proposed several comprehensive methods for measuring transit access but these measures are often time consuming to calculate due to the difficulty of obtaining the required data. The purpose of the research discussed in this paper is to create a script which automates the calculation of one of these comprehensive accessibility measures, the Transit Opportunity Index (TOI), using only publicly available data. Transit system data is obtained exclusively from General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data. The only other data required is a basic population count at the block group level, available from the either Census Bureau or the relevant state data center. Once the script was developed, it was applied to the six Connecticut (CT) Transit operated bus systems. The script was also modified to explore how transit accessibility changes throughout the day in the CT Transit Hartford bus system. The TOI script using public data substantially reduces the amount of time required to calculate and map transit accessibility.

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• Supplemental Notes:
  • Alternate title: Using General Transit Feed Specification Data to Measure and Map Transit Accessibility. This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AP050 Bus Transit Systems.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Bertolaccini, Kelly
  • Lownes, Nicholas E
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2015-1-11 to 2015-1-15
• Date: 2015

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 15p
• Monograph Title: TRB 94th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accessibility; Bus transit; Data collection; Mapping; Public transit
• Identifier Terms: General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS)
• Geographic Terms: Connecticut
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01556520
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 15-6045
• Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 9 2015 7:53AM