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Bluetooth (BT) time-stamped media access control (MAC) address data have been used for traffic studies worldwide. Although Bluetooth (BT) technology has been widely recognised as an effective, low-cost traffic data source in freeway traffic contexts, it is still unclear whether BT technology can provide accurate travel time (TT) information in complex urban traffic environments. Therefore, this empirical study aims to systematically evaluate the accuracy of BT travel time estimates in urban arterial contexts. There are two major hurdles to deriving accurate TT information for arterial roads: the multiple detection problem and noise in BT estimates. To date, they have not been fully investigated, nor have well-accepted solutions been found. Using approximately two million records of BT time-stamped MAC address data from twenty weekdays, this study uses five different BT TT-matching methods to investigate and quantify the impact of multiple detection problems and the noise in BT TT estimates on the accuracy of average BT travel times. Our work shows that accurate Bluetooth-based travel time information on signalised arterial roads can be derived if an appropriate matching method can be selected to smooth out the remaining noise in the filtered travel time estimates. Overall, average-to-average and last-to-last matching methods are best for long (>1 km) and short (≤1 km) signalised arterial road segments, respectively. Furthermore, our results show that the differences between BT and ground truth average TTs or speeds are systematic, and adding a calibration is a pragmatic method to correct inaccurate BT average TTs or speeds. The results of this research can help researchers and road operators to better understand BT technology for TT analysis and consequently to optimise the deployment location and configuration of BT MAC address scanners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transport-related social exclusion is a complex issue. It can be studied from a variety of angles, be influenced by a number of factors, and affect diverse population groups. This study investigates transport-related social exclusion from a multi-dimensional view. Transport inequity was measured based on different development stages of a region using the Lorenz Curve and Gini index, and compared socio-economic characteristics, such as housing affordability, employment self-sufficiency, urban sprawl, and transport-mode share at different degrees of spatial aggregation. Two hierarchical spatial aggregation levels are used: (1) Sydney – Perth; (2) Inner – Middle – Outer sectors. Spatial gaps of transport-related social exclusion are identified for both cities and a number of policy implications are considered to provide suggestions to improve transport-related social inclusion in both cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the equity distribution of public transport for three separate disadvantaged cohorts including elderly residents, low-income households and no-car households for Perth, Western Australia. It also undertakes a city-wide equity analysis of Perth and compares this with a published analysis for Melbourne. Overall the public transport distribution of the three socially disadvantaged groups was identified to be less equitable when compared to the population as a whole. The elderly had the most inequitable distribution of population relative to other cohorts. Perth’s population exhibits a 0.52 Gini coefficient suggesting a relatively unequal spatial distribution of services to the population. However, this is much better than Melbourne (at 0.68). Results imply that 70% of Perth’s population have only 33% of services supplied, whilst in Melbourne this figure was 19%. Policy implications and areas for future research in this field were identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximately one-fifth of Perth’s population is aged 60 or older. Projections suggest that this proportion will continue to increase as a result of the large number of children born after the World War II (1946–1964). Access to and accessibility around train stations for the aging population is and will become a more important issue as the elderly population continues to grow. The aim of the paper is to develop and apply a new measure of accessibility to train stations at a fine spatial scale, justified by the special circumstance of the elderly using a case study in Perth, Western Australia. Intercept surveys are used to collect data on factors affecting train station accessibility for patrons aged 60 years or older, at seven highly dispersed train stations. Overall accessibility is measured separately using a composite index based on three travel modes (walk-and-ride, park-and-ride and bus-and-ride). The results illustrate that key variables, such as distance from an origin to a station, walking or driving route directness, land-use diversity, service and facility quality, bus connection to train stations, all affect the accessibility to train stations for the elderly. This implies that improvements to these factors will improve accessibility for this population group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an on-going interest in measuring land use accessibility in urban areas. The transport geography and land use planning literature often tend to focus on job accessibility, and by a specific (usually motorised) travel mode, with little effort being made towards understanding the accessibility of other key destinations and their spatial equity within the urban structure. Furthermore, a lot of these studies use complex measures that are difficult to interpret and incorporate into planning and transport policies. This study employs a simple but powerful, policy friendly 'accessible-opportunities' approach to examine the relative accessibility and spatial equity of five key urban land uses in Perth, Australia. Comparisons are drawn between the accessibility of different land uses, as well as between access by private car and public transport, the two major travel modes in the Perth metropolitan region. The results show that jobs have the highest accessibility compared to other destination types, but poor spatial equity as outer suburbs are very poorly served (low/no job accessibility). Primary & secondary education and shopping are the most spatially equitable destinations. The results also highlight the poor accessibility provided by public transport and its inability to compete with the private car regardless of the trip purpose. Generally, the outer suburbs are under-served as services are concentrated in inner city areas. Given that more new developments have occurred in fringe areas than inner areas in recent years, increasingly more people are being disadvantaged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the debate around monocentric versus polycentric urban structures persists, a growing number of traditionally monocentric cities are pursuing a transformation agenda towards the polycentric structure. The decisions of locating and prioritising the additional centres is often based on an accessibility score, leaving out other essential factors such as the spatial variations of labour density and agglomeration externalities. This paper conducts an empirical investigation on the suitability of accessibility measures in identifying, evaluating and prioritising metropolitan activity centres (ACs), and proposes an effective density-based measure for the purpose. The proposed effective job/labour density measure integrates both a proximity dimension and a scale/size dimension, and is therefore more comprehensive than the accessibility measure. The two measures (accessibility and effective density) are applied to a case study of strategic-level ACs in the metropolitan region of Perth, Western Australia, and ACs are ranked based on their separate accessibility and effective density scores. Generally, the ACs performed poorly under both measures, with many non-AC zones having much better accessibility and effective job/labour density scores (than those designated as ACs). Nevertheless, the results show that the two measures produce markedly different ranking/prioritisation outcomes, suggesting that studies or policies that merely rely on the accessibility measure to make AC prioritisation (or exclusion) decisions could be misleading. By virtue of being more comprehensive with an integration of proximity and scale dimensions, and the ability to estimate economic agglomeration, the proposed effective density measure is, argued to be better suited and more reliable than a mere accessibility score. • Accessibility indicators are compared with an effective density-based score for the purpose of evaluating activity centres. • Evaluation and prioritisation of development of activity centres based on an accessibility score could be misleading. • A modified effective density-based measure is proposed, tested against accessibility models. • The proposed measure proves to be better and more suited for evaluation and prioritisation of activity centres. • There are many zones with better potential be activity centres than the currently designated activity centre zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As accessibility becomes an increasingly relevant concept in the analysis of sustainable transport and urban development, the accuracy of accessibility measures becomes increasingly vital. While more complex measures are gradually gaining popularity with increasing data and computational resources, policy makers and planners are still prone to opt for less complex methods that are easy to use and interpret. The cumulative opportunities measure is the most widely applied accessibility measure in planning practice, but it is also among the least accurate due to its lack of consideration of the impact of competition for those opportunities. This study seeks to highlight the impact of addressing competition for different urban services in the cumulative opportunities measure. A competition component is added to the measure, which is applied to a case study of three types of urban services in the Perth metropolitan area; jobs, primary/secondary education and shopping. The results show that considering competition changes the spatial patterns of accessibility and its equity. Since this approach reveals demand-supply imbalances, it can more accurately determine spatial inequalities in accessibility, and hence increases the utility of the cumulative opportunities measure. We also find that the three services had varying levels and spatial patterns of accessibility and spatial equity, thus relying on any single one of them for assessing spatial structural performance can be misleading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]