6 / 2017-04-14 16:39:39

Optimal Model for Corridor Transit Design Integrated with Property Development with Multiple Centers

781,13449,13450,13451

This paper proposes an optimal model for the integrated transit and property development on a linear corridor connecting multiple centers (of which the traditional monocentric model becomes a special case). The interaction between the transit system and housing market is explicitly considered: in order to maximize their utilities with the budget constraints, multiple-worker households choose their residential location based on the performance of the transit system, by which they travel to the pre-specified activity centers; the profit-pursuing property developers make decisions on the housing service supply; and the equilibrized population distribution in turn affects the transit agency’s optimal design (stop spacing and headway) of the corridor transit. A central decision-maker is assumed to be in charge of the planning of the integrated system and aims to minimize the total system cost in accommodating the total population and serving their commutes. Piece-wise continuum approximation is adopted for transit design in this paper, which endows the proposed optimal model with the parsimonious property. The corresponding nonlinear minimization problem is solved by a two-stage solution algorithm. Numerical results show that (i) the integrated planning of rail and property development save the annual system cost by 17.92% as opposed to the rail-only scenario; (ii) polycentric and monocentric city-based models bring about substantially different results with respect to population distribution and optimal configuration of transit system; and (iii) the city’s total number of households and their income level determine the optimal selection of the transit technologies (i.e., rail, bus rapid bus, and regular bus).