An evaluation of in-service infrastructural facilities of walk-access feeder paths to urban local bus stops

• Published in: Transportation research procedia (Online) 2020, Vol.48, p.3824-3831
• Main Authors: Roy, Subhojit, Basu, Debasis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: fuzzy c-means clustering; importance rating; in-service condition; walk-access infrastructural facility
• ISSN: 2352-1465; 2352-1465
• DOI: 10.1016/j.trpro.2020.08.037

The work documents an experience in evaluation of the in-service infrastructural facilities of walk-access feeder paths to urban local bus stops in the city of Bhubaneswar, India. The work follows a rational approach, whereby both the in-service condition and relative importance of the walk-access infrastructures are considered, by taking into account the perception of those bus commuters, who usually undertake walk-mode to access bus stops. This approach allows determination of the relative priority among improvement areas of the existing walk-access infrastructural facilities, by focusing on those aspects where the perceived in-service condition is poor, but the importance is high. In view of this, a set of walk-access infrastructural items are identified existing in the study area, and bus commuters’ perception on their in-service condition and their importance is recorded. Thereafter, a two-dimensional fuzzy C-means algorithm is employed in order to identify the improvement areas. The work identifies a set of 5 major improvement areas of walk-access infrastructure, such as presence of dedicated sidewalk facility, width of sidewalk, presence of crosswalks, quality of road surface, and presence of street lights on access path. Overall, the work documents valuable insights in the context of infrastructural facility improvements in walk-access feeder paths with regard to a mid-sized urban area.