Accessibility and Equity Analysis of Highway-Railway Traffic Network Based on Real-Time Route Planning Data: A Case Study of Shandong Peninsula Urban Agglomeration, China

Abstract

As a bond of geospatial and socioeconomic ties, transport supports the development of regions. With the rapid development of the economy, the coordinated development of regional transport has become a concern. To narrow the gap in transport development between cities and achieve sustainable development in regional transport, this study took the Shandong Peninsula urban agglomeration as the research object and using real-time path planning data assessed accessibility of the traffic network under two travel scenarios: cars and car-connected train. Based on the results of accessibility calculations, the Gini coefficient and Theil index were used to measure the equity of regional traffic networks. The results showed that (1) overall accessibility under the two travel scenarios showed a pattern of gradual decay from the center to the periphery; (2) both the accessibility and equity of the highway network were better than those of the railway network; (3) differences in regional development were the main sources of overall regional transport inequity. The research results provide a useful reference for the planning and construction of urban agglomeration traffic networks.