A RAIL-BUS TRANSFER CONVENIENCE EVALUATION CONSIDERING CHARACTERISTICS OF STATION SURROUNDINGS

Abstract

Improvement of the transfer convenience between railway and other transport modes may promote further use of railway. However, the convenience of these transfers has not been extensively evaluated. Focusing on the transfer between railway and bus, this study aims to establish a method to evaluate transfer convenience regarding physical and structural characteristics of transfer paths and bus stops. An online survey was conducted to obtain passengers' evaluation on rail-bus transfer convenience. With the data obtained, transfer convenience evaluation models were developed to quantify the effect of physical characteristics of transfer paths and bus stops on the convenience evaluation. Parameters of the models were then converted into impedance indices to express the intuitive and quantitative magnitude of the effect. Indices were utilized to calculate the path impedance, which were compared with the results of convenience evaluation to demonstrate how path the impedance represents the evaluation.