Spatio-temporal Network Accessibility

Abstract

This report presents the development and application of a standardized methodology for assessing the accessibility of multimodal public transport systems. As cities around the world face growing pressure to deliver efficient, inclusive, and sustainable mobility, there is a clear need for analytical tools that can evaluate how well transit networks serve diverse populations across both space and time. This is particularly important in multimodal systems, where the overall user experience depends not only on the performance of individual modes, but also on how well these modes are integrated in terms of spatial layout, service availability, and schedule coordination. Although many existing studies have evaluated public transport accessibility, most of these focus on single modes or static indicators such as travel time and coverage. They often neglect the dynamic, interconnected nature of real-world transit systems, and provide limited insight into how multimodal integration affects system performance. To address these gaps, this research introduces a comparative framework that combines spatial and temporal accessibility metrics using publicly available GTFS data and graph-based network representations. The primary objective of this research is to design a methodology that enables structured, comparative analysis of multimodal public transport networks. The study applies this methodology to a diverse set of twelve cities and investigates whether the resulting metrics reveal meaningful insights into the spatial and temporal structure, coordination, and operational strategies of their networks. These insights then serve as the foundation for identifying system strengths and weaknesses and developing targeted policy recommendations.