Transport Quality Index: A Tool for Measuring a Sustainable City

抄録

The concept of using Transport Quality Index (TQI) to measure the sustainability of a city's transport system is proposed. The idea of Quality Index is not new to human societies but no general index exists for transport systems. Combining the impact of mode share, environmental conditions and traffic operations the TQI is introduced. Considering different population numbers, the absolute TQI value or ATQI is used to rank cities and towns. It is shown that the ATQI to population is governed by the negative exponential relationship. Sample calculations and ranking of cities are given. It is concluded that the TQI concept is a simple but practical tool for determining the state of a city's transport system and its status to achieving a sustainable system.