Walking to public transit: Exploring variations by socioeconomic status

The choice to use public transit as a mean of travel is largely influenced by walking access from origin to transit facilities. Existing network planning uses 400m walking distance to bus stops to define the catchment area. This “one size fits all” approach has been questioned in the literature due to its inability to take into account various factors pertaining to walking access. Using household travel survey data of Brisbane, Australia, this research explores the variation in walking time among individuals with different socio-economic standings. Bus users in Brisbane are first divided into “true transit captive users” and “non-true transit captive users” to compare their walking time to bus stop between two groups, which shows no significant difference. In a subsequent analysis, “non-true transit captive users” are further divided into eight groups using two-step clustering technique. A comparative analysis reveals that walking time is most sensitive amongst part-time workers, high income earners, and the elderly travellers. Walking time is least sensitive amongst post-secondary students who are studying and working at the same time. Findings from this study will contribute to the understanding of people's walking access to public transit, the reasons for substantial variations across individuals and potential impacts of individuals’ socio-economic characteristics, which will assist transit service planning to tailor different market segments more effectively