Assessing the effects of new public transportation routes : an equity analysis on the changing accessibility of Albuquerque, New Mexico
This research details the application of a public transportation accessibility model using travel time as the accessibility measure. The primary objective was to develop a multi-modal network model for detecting change in travel time at the household level as the result of the implementation of new rapid bus routes. This method is situated in the accessibility measures of transportation equity, a focus of research in the broader field of transportation geography. The level of detail that current accessibility studies use to evaluate public transit are not detailed enough to capture travel time changes at the household level and through varying time periods throughout the day. The result of this research is the successful application of this network to highlight the travel time changes at the household level of new transit investments. The multi-model network was developed in ArcGIS and accounts for the walking time from home to the bus stop, the waiting time at a bus stop, the travel time on the bus, and any necessary transfers. Both peak and off-peak time periods were modeled. The application of this network to a case-study of the Westside of Albuquerque, NM demonstrates how household-level effects of new transit investments can be modeled, with implications for a finer level of detail for social justice studies. Specifically, the Northwest quadrant of Albuquerque benefits through greater time savings compared to the Southwest quadrant, though both sections are in the service area of two new significant public transportation investments. This is despite the greater need in the Southwest quadrant for public transportation based on socio-economic characteristics.
Local transit accessibility--New Mexico--Albuquerque, Local transit--New Mexico--Albuquerque--Planning, Customer equity--New Mexico--Albuquerque.
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