A Comprehensive Assessment of Transit in U.S. Rural and Small Urban Areas: Existing Opportunities and Future Directions for Indiana
Completed 2016
Equitable access to transport is a crucial goal worldwide to enhance quality of life and ensure equal opportunity. Nevertheless, specific groups such as low-income people, people with disabilities, the elderly, and some rural populations suffer limited transportation choices and challenges in accessing basic needs and opportunities.
Much research has been conducted to justify the need for transit systems and investigate the economic, environmental, and other effects of different transit options on local communities. However, no comprehensive framework has been developed that incorporates multiple evaluation factors, such as environmental benefits and improvements to accessibility and connectivity to evaluate the different transit modes. Moreover, evaluations of potential transit investments rarely consider how public preferences and travel behavior may change through policies and planning.
My research proposes a comprehensive framework for assessing transit services and guiding future systems’ development, aiming t o establish an accessibility-based, multiobjective, multimodal, and people-oriented systems evaluation. Specifically, this research focuses on three components: (1) transport disadvantage, (2) mode assessment, and (3) mode shift potential. Methods from urban studies, geography, and regional planning are used to examine the first component. Management and decision-making research help study the second component. To explore the third component, methods from consumer science and social psychology are used to develop and test a theoretical model that investigates attitudes and behaviors toward transit. The framework is illustrated using a case study of Indiana and the Hoosier State train.
Read V. Dimitra Pyrialakou's doctoral dissertation: A Comprehensive Assessment of Transit in U.S. Rural and Small Urban Areas: Existing Opportunities and Future Directions for Indiana
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