A clustering method for measuring accessibility and equity in public transportation service: Case study of Melbourne. (November 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mohri, Seyed Sina; Mortazavi, Seyedamirhossein; Nassir, Neema
• Is Part Of: Sustainable cities and society. Volume 74(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-11
• Subjects: Public transportation -- Equity -- Accessibility -- Clustering -- Community detection; Sustainable urban development -- Periodicals; Sustainable buildings -- Periodicals; Urban ecology (Sociology) -- Periodicals; 307.76
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scs.2021.103241
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2210-6707

Abstract

Highlights: A new accessibility measure is proposed for public transport (Modified Cumulative Accessibility- MCA). MCA is able to incorporate travel demand information in measuring accessibility and equity. Demand patterns are reflected into MCA using a novel clustering method. MCA facilitates prescriptive insights to address service inequities. The method is tested with data from Melbourne and service inequities are identified. Abstract: This paper proposes a Modified Cumulative Accessibility (MCA) measure incorporating actual travel demand information (Origin-Destination trip patterns) to improve the accuracy of the measure as a reliable proxy for equity evaluation and amelioration in accessing Public Transportation (PT) services. The travel demand information is reflected into the MCA measure by evaluating and clustering PT and Private Vehicle Transportation (PVT) trip diaries. Both vertical and horizontal equities are measured for the network's Transportation Analysis Zones (TAZs). To redress the inequities, a priority list of operational recommendations for each TAZ is identified. The proposed method is tested with the Greater Melbourne area datasets and the TAZs with the highest inequity along with prescribed operational recommendations are identified. In terms of equitable distribution of public transportation service, a major observation from the case study model was that the outer suburban areas located in the eastern side of the the Melbourne metropolitan area are relatively underserved as compared to the inner and western suburbs.