Attraction Area Model for Urban Rail Transit Stations

Abstract:

A generalized travel cost based model is established to obtain the attraction area of an urban rail transit station according to the uniform accessibility principle. The detailed algorithm as well as a case study is also presented. Based on the fact that city center is not the only destination to all trips, accessible points are used to describe all the possible destinations whose weights are determined by the trip distribution of the whole city. Trip time value is refined by the actual population structure in every traffic zone around the urban rail transit stations. Access distance calculated on the basis of the actual road network becomes more practical. Therefore, a detailed algorithm is given and its method optimization is also discussed. At last, a case study based on the predicted passenger flow data of a city in Guangdong Province verifies the model. The results indicate that the attraction area of a station is related to the road network around, trip distribution and service levels of the competing traffic modes, not just a simple circular region. This model can provide a way to obtain the attraction area of an already existing or a planning station, which is the foundation of passenger flow prediction and facility configuration of all the access modes.

Key words:urban rail transit; attraction area; generalized travel cost; accessibility; traffic zone