EVALUATION OF TRANSIT ACCESSIBILITY AND LIKELY IMPACT ON TRAFFIC FOR FAST DEVELOPING RESIDENTIAL AREA: A CASE STUDY

Balya Manjurali I. M.Tech Student in Trans. Engg. & Planning, SVNIT, Surat e-mail: manjurali.momin@ymail.com

Krishna Saw M.Tech Student in Trans. Engg. & Planning, SVNIT, Surat e-mail: kriscivil_10@yahoo.com

B.K. Katti Professor, Emeritus, Civil Engineering Department , SVNIT, Surat

ABSTRACT—For effective public transportation planning, it is quite essential to understand the degree of accessibility status to work out the deficiency in the road or bus route network. The measurement of transit accessibility and availability are important both for forecasting transit ridership and for planning and evaluating transit service. Accessibility has been regarded a property of people indicating how easily they can reach a set of potential destination. While measuring transit accessibility, both spatial and time dimensions in terms of walking distances, walking and waiting duration are important parameters to patronize the transit riders. The present paper focuses on measurement of transit accessibility for small study area of Adajan area of Surat city considering two major bus routes through the area.

1. INTRODUCTION Public transit is a mode of transportation that

involves transportation by a collective in a large vehicle, subsidized or managed by the government, and operates mostly on a fixed route and fixed schedule. It is multi-faceted, involving various vehicles and facility types, and engages populations across various activity centers. The current fast pace of life in fast developing urban area demands an effective, fast and reliable Public Transportation System. . One significant segment of Public Transport is an effective accessibility which is sustainable and acceptable by the trip maker. It is just not enough to have an efficient Public Transportation System, but it needs supports of good accessible routes for the transit pedestrians to reach their bus stations. Therefore, the accessibility for the transit pedestrians cannot be ignored or side tracked in planning of public transit system for any city. Accessibility parameters and their measurement is an important task. Perception of the transit riders in this regard bears equal importance.

2. METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION SCENARIO Urbanization is a significant phenomenon at

national level, after post independence era. It was 17.29% in 1951 and touched 27.75% in just five decades and touched urban population mark of 285 million out of 1027 million in 2001 and is estimated to touch 540 million by the year 2021

(37%). At the same time growth in vehicle population in cities is going at rapid rate and more so in the case of two wheelers. Impact has been felt maximum on metropolitan transportation system in terms of substantial increase in transport demand and traffic growth resulting in sustainability crisis and distortion in modal split characteristics.

The personalized trips with cars and two wheelers found significant edge over public transit system on one hand and squeezing experience on NMV travel component on the other. The rapid growth in transport demand and necessary growth in transport infrastructures are in imbalance to disturb the model split resulting into heavy traffic congestions, formation of traffic bottlenecks and higher level of pollution on road network. Moreover the increase in personalised vehicles and significant growth in traffic flow have deterant impact on city bus services and the schedules are disturbed. Eventually the net result is inefficient transit system. This has further promoted paratransit system which is another important element of traffic congestion and air pollution.

3. STUDY AREA Adajan area a sub area of West zone of Surat

city on the right bank of River Tapti has been selected as study area as belongs to a fast growing residential sector. The population of study area is of nearly 2 lacs. The study area has two bus routes. One is from Adajan Patiya bus terminus to

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Evaluation of Transit Accessibility and Likely Impact on Traffic for Fast Developing Residential Area: A Case Study ♦ 305

350m of walking distances and 86% preferred walking time of nearly 5min to reach their bus stops. The percentile values of the preferred walking distances and walking time are given in Table-3(a) and 3(b).

Table 3(a): Working Member (%)

W Dist.(m) 250 350 450 550 >800 TotalWorking

Members (%) 45.84 33.33 11.11 1.39 8.33 100

Figure 3(a): Walking Distance Members Distribution

Table 3(b): Working Members (%)

Walking Time (Min.) 6 10 15 20 >25 TotalWorking Members (%) 75 18.06 5.56 0 1.39 100

Figure 3(b): Walking Time Members Distribution

4. DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSIT ACCESSIBILITY INDEX It is required to bring the walking distance and

walking time in certain modules for relative comparison and to specify the likely level of services. Development of Accessibility Index as access indicator is desired. The Transit Walking Distance Accessibility Index (TAI-WD) is defined as the inverse of walking distance in kilometers. Similarly the concept of Transit Walking Time Accessibility Index (TWTAI) has been introduced in the present study as inverse of walking time in hour. Accordingly the index values of distance and time base accessibilities are calculated and mentioned below Table-4(a),4(b).

Table 4(a): Walking Distance Index Values Scaling

Walking Dist. 250 350 450 550 >950 WD Index 4 2.85 2.22 1.81 1.05

Table 4(b): Walking Time Index Values Scaling

Walking Time 6 10 15 WT Index 10 6 4

The average Accessibility Index values for males, females and children have been worked out on average weightage bases for boths categories of distance accessibilities and time accessibilities as shown in Table-5. As the walking distance accessibility are considered in two parts as up to transit routes and bus stops the index values differ as mentioned in top two rows. Higher index values are observed on consideration of walking distance up to transit route. Additional 150m distance is assumed in case of distance up to bus stop.

The higher TAI-WD is observed for females and children because they are not accepting higher walking distance compare to males. As walking distance/time for children is still less because of school buses and three wheelers as their modes accessibility index values are as high as 7.64 and 14.17 in case of walking distance and walking time.

Table 5: Observed Transit Accessibility Index Values-Walking

Member Male Female Children Member TAI-WD(TR*) 4.86 5.73 7.64 6.62 TAI-WT (BS*) 2.67 2.91 3.32 2.25 TWTAI (BS*) 7.99 8.22 14.17 7.60

*TR- Walk up to Transit Routes BS= Walk up to Bus Stop

5. PROPOSED LOS OF TRANSIT ACCESSIBILITIES Transit Walking Distance accessibility index

TAI-WD all in the range of 1 to 10, the lowest pertains to walking distance 1 or more than 1km, whereas index value 10 signifies the minimum distance of 100m. Similarly range of TAI-WT is 1 to 10 for adults and 1 to 15 for young school going children and elderly people where their minimum desired time 6min for adults and 3 to 4 min for children which lead to Accessibility Index value of 10 and 15 for both categories respectively. The survey conducted for the working members for preferred index value are 6.75 for transit route and 3.5 for reaching the bus stop. The Proposed levels of service in regards of transit accessibility with

0

10

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(%)

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6 10 15 20 >25

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(%)

Walking Time (Min.)

306 ♦ National Conference & Workshop: RATE12, SVNIT, Surat (07–09 June 2012)

reference to walking distances are as shown in Table-6(a).

Table 6(a): Proposed LOS of TAI for Distance

LOS A B C D E TAI-WD 5 4 3 2 1 Distance

(m) < 200 250 330 500 >800

Table 6(b): Proposed LOS of TAI for Time

LOS A B C D E TAI-WT <15 12 8.5 6.5 4

Time (Min.)

<=4 4 to 6 6 to 8 8 to 10 >10

6. IMPACT OF TAI ON TRAFFIC The evaluation of transit accessibility has been

carried here in terms of two accessibility index i.e. Transit Walking Distance Accessibility Index (TAI-WD) and Transit Walking Time Accessibility Index (TAI-WT) in the range of 1to 5 and 1 to 15 respectively. Higher the index values better is the quality of accessibility to reach the bus stops. If planners are able to provide LOS C and above the people are induced to opt for usage of public transit system. Obviously transit system will be promoted by people who tend to shift from their personel vehicle usage to the public transport system provided the public frequency supports the improved accessibilities. Eventually there will reduction in personel modes on the road network and traffic congestion. Moreover more transit pedestrians will be on the residential streets resulting in more social contacts on one hand and scope for physical fitness due to walking on the other.

7. CONCLUSION Transit accessibility is one of the key

parameter in sustainable public transportation.

Therefore, mass transit system cannot be planned, implemented or operated in absence of effective transit accessibility introduced in the system. There are two phases of transit accessibility namely transit walking accessibility and transit waiting accessibility. The first is concerned with the distance from the residence to the bus station that a transit rider has to walk, whereas the latter is associated with the bus frequency. The focus here is on first part of accessibility measured in terms of walking distance and walking time up to the bus stops by various members of the family. TAI-WD and TAI-WT are developed here in the range of 1 to 5 and 1 to 15 and they are further stratified in five levels from A to E to specify the LOS for the transit accessibility. It is observed that residents at present are more interested in transit accessibilities to reach the transit routes rather the bus stops so that they can have choice of other paratransit modes to reach their destinations.

REFERENCES 1. Md. Sha Al Mamun (2009), “An Aggregated Public

Transit Accessibility Measure”, Graduate Student Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Connecticut.

2. Shahbakhti Rostami (2012), “Accessibility Problems and Transportation Needs of Rural Kurdistan, Iran (A Gis-Based Analysis)”, Geography Department, Payame Noor University, Tehran, I.R of Iran.

3. Sony Sulaksono (2005),” Modeling Walking Accessibility to Public Transport Terminals: Case Study of Singapore Mass Rapid Transit”, Lecturer, Civil Engineering Department, Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia.

4. “Study on Traffic and Transportation policies and strategies in urban areas in India”, Ministry of Urban development (May-2008).