Using GTFS Data to Measure and Map Transit Accessibility

Abstract

Quantifying transit accessibility is a challenging but important task for transit planners and service providers. Researchers have proposed several comprehensive methods for measuring transit access but these measures are often time consuming to calculate due to the difficulty of obtaining the required data. The purpose of the research discussed in this paper is to create a script which automates the calculation of one of these comprehensive accessibility measures, the Transit Opportunity Index (TOI), using only publicly available data. Transit system data is obtained exclusively from General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data. The only other data required is a basic population count at the block group level, available from the either Census Bureau or the relevant state data center. Once the script was developed, it was applied to the six Connecticut (CT) Transit operated bus systems. The script was also modified to explore how transit accessibility changes throughout the day in the CT Transit Hartford bus system. The TOI script using public data substantially reduces the amount of time required to calculate and map transit accessibility.

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