Assessing Public Transit Supply from a Demand-Oriented Perspective: A Case Study of Chengdu, China

This paper proposes a method for assessing supply level of public transit from a demand-oriented perspective. Online taxi-hailing order is chosen for travel demand analysis because it reflects the potential travel needs of public transit and provides a large sample with precision location information. Besides, a series of variables integrated with travel demand are employed to describe public transit supply: public transit service availability, public transit station coverage mass, transit line coverage mass, and public transit connectivity. Geographical links between travel demand and these variables are established with a local regression model—geographically weighted regression (GWR). In the model, the calibrated local coefficients of different variables are endowed with function of supply assessment. Applying the method in Chengdu as a case study, results demonstrate the variation of public transit attraction against online taxi-hailing services in each section and indicate public transit supply gaps in different areas.