GIS tools and programming languages for creating models of public and private transport potential accessibility in Szczecin, Poland

Abstract

AbstractThis article presents the results of public and private (car) transport accessibility modelling, which gives the room for the comparison of two types of transport throughout the whole day as well as the rush hours. Both public and private transport models are based on public available data, accessible via the Internet which is downloaded using a programming language and processed using the GIS tools. The public transport model is based on the GTFS data (General Transit Feed Specification), while the car model has been created from data on driving times derived from Google Maps® API. Both models presented in the article have been constructed for a specified period of time, namely from 5.00 am to 10.00 pm in 15-min intervals. The analysis of the above-mentioned models has allowed the comparison of differences in potential accessibility and its deviations at different times of the day. The disparities revealed by the study have indicated that there are certain times of the day when public transport is actually competitive with the private means of transport. The results of potential accessibility analysis are visualised with the use of maps, including the choropleth ones.