Measuring walkability and its effect on light rail usage: a comparative study of the USA and Japan

Abstract

With rising awareness of global warming and its consequences, greater efforts are being made to make our cities more sustainable. Among many factors that can lead to more a sustainable future, policies encouraging walking and the use of public transportation can be considered as major priorities in planning. There is a significant body of research concerning the process of rating urban structure according to its ease of access for pedestrians and concerning the relationships between walking and public transportation. However, there are few studies focused on the direct relationship between walking and Light Rail Transit (LRT). This study sought to understand the effect of the so-called walkability of urban areas on LRT usage in the USA and Japan. To achieve this goal, an objective, an internationally applicable method for quantifying walkability, was devised using urban structure and street network data in the USA and Japan. Walkability indices derived using this method was used to measure the effect of walkability in station areas on LRT ridership in both countries. Results show that the urban structure around stations in Japanese cities can generally be considered more walkable than cities in the USA. Moreover, station area walkability has a measurable effect on LRT usage, but only in the USA.

Quantitative Evaluation of TOD Performance Based on Multi-Source Data: A Case Study of Shanghai

“…It is worth mentioning that we compared our results with previous research (51,52), and found some differences. Our study, to some extent, is consistent with that of Li et al suggesting that some metro stations in central areas are balanced (Cluster 1) in T and D. However, in reality, a number of central stations are not balanced (65).…”

“…For three dimensions, with reference to the earlier literature ( 25 , 48 , 52 ), we first chose the indicators “Number of metro lines,” “Metro frequency,” “Accessibility (betweenness) of the metro station,” “Number of bus stops,” and “Number of parking lots” for T dimension; “Density of road network,” “Intersection density,” and “Number of entrances and exits” for O dimension; and “Function mixture,” “Employment density,” “Population density” for D dimension. Second, to show an overall character of walking capability around the metro station, we introduced new indicators to provide a more precise perspective; both O2-Density of pedestrian network and O3- Accessibility of pedestrian network were calculated by sDNA ( 61 ), based on pedestrian network from Baidu Map.…”

“…Based on this, Lyu (48) established an additional "Oriented" (O) dimension of functional and morphological characteristics and selected 18 out of 94 systematic variables to assess Chinese context-based TOD in Beijing. Recent studies have extended "node-place" model to "node-tie-place" model (51) and "node-functionalityplace" model ( 52) by adding functionality indicators (51,52). Moreover, several previous studies have also emphasized pedestrian-oriented perspective as an important dimension in transit station areas (11,39,(53)(54)(55)(56)(57)(58).…”

Utilising Dedicated Pedestrian Networks to Understand the Relationship between Accessibility and Pedestrian Density in Asian Cities

“…Others have distinguished these features as being either macro-or micro-scale features [11]. Macro-scale features refer to characteristics such as population density, land use diversity and street connectivity that are typically measured objectively at the census block, city or regional levels [12]. These features encourage pedestrian activity through improved connectivity and accessibility by increasing route options, reducing distance and bringing destinations within closer proximity [9].…”

“…Conversely, micro-scale features refer to pedestrian-oriented facilities, including sidewalk width [17] and continuity [18], and aesthetic design qualities [19], [20]. These features are typically measured at a much finer grain either at the street or neighbourhood level, using objective or subjective methods [12]. Research has consistently focused on street connectivity and pedestrian accessibility.…”