A methodology to evaluate the pedestrian accessibility to bus stops. Application and analysis of results from the study case of Nomentano district in Rome.

Walking and transit are the pillars of sustainable cities and bus stops are often the seam between them. The issue is usually addressed from the “transit side” (attractiveness, comfort, safety of the bus stop) or from the passengers’, especially when dealing with accessibility. Less investigated are the effects of the built environment on the passengers’ assessment of bus stops accessibility. The paper describes a methodology to evaluate the accessibility of bus stops, in which indicators describing walkability, land use and transit characteristics are considered and their mutual effects elaborated to describe objective and subjective characteristics influencing passengers’ choices towards a given bus stop. The methodology enables to create accessibility maps as that developed for the application of the methodology on a central district in Rome, Italy. More specifically, in such case study, a total amount of 231 bus and tram stops in the district are considered and the indicators for such supply developed and calculated. The resulting map comprehends physical considerations and remarks linked to perception, describing the urban layout and the preferences of the local public transport users. Results are weighted through a questionnaire submitted to an independent panel of “special passengers”, i.e. students and academicians of transportation studies programs. Eventually a multicriteria analysis is developed to obtain final values describing univocally the accessibility of each stop. All of the above is duly reported in the paper with the objective to advance knowledge in the field of accessibility assessment for transit nodes.