Variation in the walking time to bus stop by the degree of transit captivity

Measures of transit accessibility are important in evaluating transit services, planning for future services and investment on land use development. Existing tools measure transit accessibility using averaged walking distance or walking time to public transit. Although the mode captivity may have significant implications on one’s willingness to walk to use public transit, this has not been addressed in the literature to date. Failed to distinguish transit captive users may lead to overestimated ridership and spatial coverage of transit services. The aim of this research is to integrate the concept of transit captivity into the analysis of walking access to public transit. The conventional way of defining “captive” and “choice” transit users showed no significant difference in their walking times according to a preliminary analysis. A cluster analysis technique is used to further divide “choice” users by three main factors, namely age group, labour force status and personal income. After eliminating “true captive” users, defined as those without driver’s licence or without a car in respective household, “non-true captive” users were classified into a total of eight groups having similar socio-economic characteristics. The analysis revealed significant differences in the walking times and patterns by their level of captivity to public transit. This paper challenges the rule-of-thumb of 400m walking distance to bus stops. In average, people’s willingness to walk dropped drastically at 268m and continued to drop constantly until it reached the mark of 670m, where there was another drastic drop of 17%, which left with only 10% of the total bus riders willing to walk 670m or more. This research found that mothers working part time were the ones with lowest transit captivity and thus most sensitive to the walking time, followed by high-income earners and the elderly. The level of captivity increases when public transit users earned lesser income, such as students and students working part time.

Mobility and Aging in Denver, Colorado: Travel Behavior, Mobility Barriers, and Perceptions of Transit

The number of seniors in the U.S. today is growing rapidly because of longer life expectancies and the aging Baby Boomer generation. This age groups' travel behavior will have substantial impacts on transportation, economics, safety, and the environment. This research used a mixed-methods approach to address issues of mobility and aging in Denver, Colorado. A quantitative approach was used to answer broad questions about travel behavior and the effects of age, gender, work status, disability, residential location and socio-economic status on mobility. Qualitative interviews with seniors in the Denver metro area were conducted to identify barriers to mobility, decision-making processes and travel decisions, and seniors' perceptions of public transit. The results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses show that residential location is an important variable for determining seniors' travel behaviors and transportation options. Perceptions of public transit were positive, but accessibility and information barriers exist that prevent older adult from using transit. The findings of this study will help to provide transportation and service recommendations to policymakers and planners in the Denver area as well as to inform studies of other North American cities with large aging populations.

Advanced public transportation systems: the state of the art update '98.

Federal Transit Administration, Washington, D.C.

Operational assessment of Paralympics transit system: low-floor buses, lift-equipped buses, and signage.

Federal Transit Administration, Washington, D.C.

Financial planning in transit: use of commercially available microcomputer software. Final report.

Urban Mass Transportation Administration, Washington, D.C.

Short-range public transportation improvements. Final report.

Urban Mass Transportation Administration, Washington, D.C.

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Federal Highway Administration, Office of Highway Planning, Washington, D.C.

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Mode of access: Internet.

The causes of rising transit operating deficits. Final report.

Urban Mass Transportation Administration, Washington, D.C.

Trends in bus transit operations 1960-1974. Final report.

Transportation Department, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs, Washington, D.C.

Financial management for transit: a handbook. Final report.

Mode of access: Internet.

Advanced public transportation systems: the state of the art update '94. Final report.

Federal Transit Administration, Washington, D.C.

Transit pricing techniques to improve productivity. Proceedings.

Transportation Department, Washington, D.C.

Review of and preliminary guidelines for integrating transit into transportation management centers. Final report.

Transportation Systems Center, Cambridge, Mass.

Transit security procedures guide. Final report.

Federal Transit Administration, Washington, D.C.