GIS-based analysis of transit accessibility. Case study: Extension of the tramway in Norrköpings municipality.
Abstract: The purpose with this Master Thesis is to analyse the consequences of accessibility for the public transportation for the inhabitants in Norrköpings municipality when a new tramway to Ringdansen is built. The purpose of this Master Thesis is also to evaluate the software addition, Network Analyst, from a public transportation planner’s point of view. Three network models have been created and studied. The network models were created in a program that handles Geographical information systems. • Network model 1 represents the net of the public transportation as it looks today, and is mainly created for comparison with the other models that have been created. • Network model 2 represents the net of the public transportation as it looks today with the difference that bus line 113 has been removed, and the tramway to Ringdansen has been added. • In network model 3 the bus line 113 has been removed and the tramway to Ringdansen has been added. Kungsgatan that normally is operated by bus line 113 is in these network model replaced by bus line 117. In this network model bus line 118 has a better trip interval; the trip interval is set to 10 minutes. Three separate studies have been conducted: The first study was an accessibility analysis based on buffer zones and polygons. Buffer zones were created around all stops with a radius of 400 meter. The radius of 400 meters represents the maximum distance that a traveller should have to the nearest stop so that the accessibility to the stop is good. The result of this analyse shows how much of Norrköping´s population are either inside or outside the 400 meter zones. The problems with buffer zones are that they are not based on real distances. With the function New Service Area, polygons were created around the stops instead. These polygons are based on real distances. The second study was an accessibility analysis based on travel times. This study was also created with New Service Area in Network Analyst. From the points Ringdansen and Hageby travel time polygons was created with the time intervals 5, 10, 15, 30 and 45 minutes. The third study is also based on travel times. This study was created with the function New Route in Network Analyst. Travel times from Hageby and Ringdansen to a couple of points was calculated. The total travel time that was calculated from each starting point has been summarized and divided with the total amount of end points. This calculation results in an accessibility index. This index represents a mean travel time from every starting points to all the ending points. Further is this index compared between all the network models to se if the travel times have increased or decreased. The result of these three studies in all network models were compared with each other. The conclusion of the fist study shows that a bigger part of the population that lives in the area from Söder Tull to Ringdansen have 400 meter or smaller distance to the nearest stop in the two network models when the tramway to Ringdansen was included. The result of the second and the third study shows that the total travel times in network model 2 and 3 have increased. The study also shows that the travel times have increased more in network model 2 than in network model 3. All the studies also showed that the differences in accessibility of the public transportation for the inhabitants in Norrköpings municipality between the three models were wery small. The analysis tools that are available in Network Analyst are indeed helpful in the work area of a public transport planner. The main reason is the new multi module traffic network, which allows the user to manage different means of transportation. This improvement is only available in the new version of Network Analyst.
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