Factors underlying the connections between active transportation and public transit at commuter rail in the Greater Toro
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Factors underlying the connections between active transportation and public transit at commuter rail in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area Kevin Chan1 · Steven Farber2
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract Encouraging the integration of active transportation with transit is increasingly being pursued as a strategy by transit agencies to boost alternative means to access transit services. Using the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Areas’ GO Transit as a case study, we conduct an investigation into the land-use and socioeconomic variables influencing the use of active transportation to access commuter rail stations. The percentage of transit users that arrive by active modes is explored using a binomial logit model. Population density, proportion of residential land, population age, low automobile ownership and median income are found to be positively associated with the integration of active transportation and transit. The proportion of commercial/institutional land, street density, and the amount of car parking at stations are negatively associated with access by active transport. The research helps to identify several policies that may increase the level of integration between active transport and public transit in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. Keywords Station access · Active transportation · Commuter rail · Cycling · Walking · GO Transit
Introduction Increasing the use of public transit is a critical pathway to decreasing automobile dependency and providing a more balanced suite of sustainable transportation options. Particularly in suburban areas, a difficult challenge for increasing ridership of commuter rail is overcoming the First- and Last-Mile problem that results from a dispersed and low-density urban-form (Tilahun et al. 2016). Many North American commuter rail services provide park-and-ride lots to allow customers to drive and leave vehicles at the train station * Steven Farber [email protected] Kevin Chan [email protected] 1
Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
2
Department of Human Geography, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Canada
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Transportation
(Engel-Yan et al. 2014). Historically, in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) it has been found that increased parking and commuter rail ridership rise together (Metrolinx 2013). However, many of the park-and-ride facilities at stations are at capacity and this may pose a limitation on future ridership growth. Future expansion of parking is challenging because land to build or expand large parking lots is often not available, which means that more expensive parking structures (such as parking garages) with higher capital, operating, and rehabilitation costs are required (Metrolinx 2013). Land constraints and the escalating costs of parking have made modeshifting away from automobile-based access an important consideration. For example, Metrolinx has a capital investment program for parking of appro
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