Detecting urban road network accessibility problems using taxi GPS data

Urban population growth and economic development have led to the creation of new communities, jobs and services at places where the existing road network might not cover or efficiently handle traffic. This generates isolated pockets of areas which are difficult to reach through the transport system. To address this accessibility problem, tje authors have developed a novel approach to systematically examine the current urban land use and road network conditions as well as to identify poorly connected regions, using GPS data collected from taxis. This method is composed of four major steps. First, city-wide passenger travel demand patterns and travel times are modeled based on GPS trajectories. Upon this model, high density residential regions are then identified, and measures to assess accessibility of each of these places are developed. Next, the regions with the lowest level of accessibility among all the residential areas are detected, and finally the detected regions are further examined and specific transport situations are analyzed. By applying the proposed method to the Chinese city of Harbin, the authors have identified 20 regions that have the lowest level of accessibility by car among all the identified residential areas. A serious reachability problem to petrol stations has also been discovered, in which drivers from 92.6% of the residential areas have to travel longer than 30 min to refill their cars. Furthermore, the comparison against a baseline model reveals the capacity of the derived measures in accounting for the actual travel routes under divergent traffic conditions. The experimental results demonstrate the potential and effectiveness of the proposed method in detecting car-based accessibility problems, contributing towards the development of urban road networks into a system that has better reachability and more reduced inequity.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2015.12.007
• Record URL:
  • http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692315002410
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/09666923
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Cui, Jianxun
  • Liu, Feng
  • Janssens, Davy
  • An, Shi
  • Wets, Geert
  • Cools, Mario
• Publication Date: 2016-2

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: pp 147-157
• Serial:
  • Journal of Transport Geography
  • Volume: 51
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 0966-6923
  • Serial URL: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jtrangeo

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accessibility; Global Positioning System; Networks; Taxicabs; Traffic data; Travel demand; Travel time; Urban highways
• Geographic Terms: Harbin (China)
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01598431
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 2 2016 10:17AM