RT19 - Laura Aston - Linking the built environment to train, tram and bus use

Researching Transit

In today’s show, Graham turns the tables on Laura, delving in to her research which unpacks the relationship between the built environment and public transport use. Laura starts by providing some context about the role of land use in influencing travel demand, before defining the term “built environment” in the context of travel behaviour. Land use is the fundamental unit of demand for transport within cities, and public transport is at its most efficient when it is integrated with the surrounding land use. When it comes to making choices about which mode to use, there are a broader set of built environment characteristics that affects choice; such as • land use intensity, • pedestrian permeability and amenity, • land-use mix and • the accessibility of destinations. Laura charts a brief history of transport and land use research and policy. They have in common a goal of understanding – or creating - transit-friendly, walkable neighbourhoods that reduce the need to travel. It’s a topic that has been turbocharged by COVID-19; in the interest of reducing crowding while ensuring people are able to fulfil their daily living necessities and enjoy a high quality of life in their neighbourhood “Space in cities is at a premium and transport corridors allow for efficient movement of people.” Despite an abundance of research, or perhaps because of it, there remains a lack of clarity about the importance of different built environment factors for encouraging transit use. Another gap Laura sought to address was whether there were significant differences in the predictors of transit use by mode. Laura sought to understand whether demand for urban bus use was associated with a different set of urban form features compared to rail. However, exploring this question required first addressing pre-existing bias in the location of different modes in a network. For example, bus, by virtue of its flexible routing, usually provides more coverage in lower density areas away from mixed-use activity centres than rail. The first empirical study in Melbourne addressed this mode location bias and identified that the demand models for individual modes were different (2). This was affirmed by further analysis that drew on an even larger dataset spanning three multimodal transit networks, complementing the Melbourne dataset with rich data for Boston and Amsterdam’s urban form and transit ridership. In fact, few factors are common between modes across the study areas. “[transit] mode is one of the contextual factors that needs to be taken into account when you are trying to accurately predict demand, or build models for planning”. This research highlighted that bus demand also shows a significant link to urban form. Better understanding the psychological pathways by which the built environment affects perceptions about bus travel may provide a key to unlock successful bus-oriented development. Visit the full shownotes on the website for links to Laura's publications: http://publictransportresearchgroup.info/?p=51790 Check out other great mass transit podcasts, and subscribe for instant downloads by visiting Feedspot’s Top 20 list. https://blog.feedspot.com/mass_transit_and_public_transport_podcasts/ Sign up for updates when we release shows: http://eepurl.com/g9tCdb Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com