Planning for integrated bus stop using space syntax analysis

Abstract

A people-centric public transportation system is often ignored due to the lock-in effect of vehicle-oriented development. The system eventually affects pedestrians’ accessibility to and from a transit stop and station, as they are the main public transport users. To resolve this issue, this study identified and measured pedestrians’ accessibility to determine the location of a bus stop in Pasir Gudang within 3- kilometres (3-km) based on three parameters, which are pedestrian, syntactical and spatial as identified through literature reviews. To analyse the pedestrian parameter, data for pedestrian volume and static activity analysis were collected using gate count method proposed by Space Syntax University College London’s (UCL) Laboratory. Next, under the syntactical parameter, axial lines of street network in Pasir Gudang were drawn and analysed using DepthMap’s axial segment for the proposed 3-km, 1.2km, 800-metres (800m) and 400-metres (400m) coverage. From an axial segment analysis, a 400m metric integration is shown to be suitable and appropriate accessibility coverage for pedestrians (significant at 0.05 level) in the study area. Then, based on the spatial parameter, a buffer analysis of 400 metres identified 46 zones within the 3-km studied area. Next, the 46 zones were then spatially analysed based on its mixed land use index and functional front index analysis using a land use map provided by the Pasir Gudang Municipal Council (MPPG). The correlation analysis results between the three parameters showed that 16 of the 46 zones were identified suitable for bus stop planning, which were significant at 0.05 and 0.01 level. The findings also showed that the pedestrian parameter in Pasir Gudang is more highly correlated to the spatial parameter compared to the syntactical parameter. This evidently showed that the pedestrian pattern of Pasir Gudang is more influenced by land use as compared to street integration. Furthermore, the three parameters discussed should be considered in order to find an optimised location for a bus stop, besides designing a better, liveable and successful street for an urban city. Accordingly, the findings of this research is expected to provide an evidence-based design approach to plan and design better transit stops for a people-centric public transportation system in the city.