Examining the Connectivity between Urban Rail Transport and Regular Bus Transport

Abstract

According to the principle of urban transport integration and sustainable development, in this work, we study the level of connection between urban rail transit and regular bus transport, construct an evaluation indicator system according to the characteristics of the connection system, use the entropy weighting method (EWM) to calculate the weights of the indicators to determine the influence of each indicator on the level of connection, and construct a TOPSIS comprehensive evaluation model, which can make an overall evaluation of objects subject to multiple factors to analyze the level of connection between rail transit stations. Finally, the system of evaluation indicators and the analysis of the level of connection are applied to an example of a rail transit station in operation in Wuxi city, and the problems of connection and interchange in the case station are analyzed. We find that 57.5% of rail stations in Wuxi have low connectivity and that interchange information service and average transfer time are the most influential factors. This study defines and quantifies eight key indicators that influence the level of rail-transit connectivity to quantify and grade the connectivity of different stations, and selects the city of Wuxi as a case study for validation. Our research provides theoretical support and practical guidance for improving rail transit interchange capacity and the sustainable development of public transport.