How Built Environment Affects the Walking Catchment Area of a Rail Transit Station: Empirical Evidence from Shanghai, China

The objective of this paper is to investigate the role of the built environment (focusing on walking route characteristics) in determining the Walking Catchment Area (WCA) of rail transit stations. In the proposed conceptual framework, two types of walking route attributes, actual walking impedance and overall walking experience are utilized to determine the size of WCA by the influencing general walking effort in distinct modes. Consequently, the Kishi’s Logit PSM (KLP) model and OLS regression model are respectively applied to quantify the effects of different walking route attributes on WCA. In the KLP model, trade-offs are measured between walking distances and walking impedance based on transit users’ stated preference data. The OLS regression attests that walking experience contributes in pedestrians’ underestimation/overestimation of perceived walking time, and thereby affects the size of WCA. Based on the improvement of some walking route characteristics, the before-and-after change is recognized in size of WCA.