From walkability to bikeability: A GIS based analysis of integrating bike sharing service in Tokyo TOD system

Abstract. Transit Oriented Development is the approach of urban development which maximizes the land use of residential, business and leisure around the public transit stops. A good TOD system can not only alleviate the contradiction between traffic congestion and insufficient land use for urban development but also significantly improve the convenience of urban residents' work and life. Moreover, while limiting the disorderly spread of the city, a good TOD system can solve the environmental and traffic problems caused by automobiles and promote synergy and integration between the industries. Traditionally, TOD is designed for facilitating the pedestrians to a convenient access to the public transportation systems so as to increase the usage rate of public transports. Despite pedestrians as the target, there are a lot of passengers move to the station via other means such as bus and bicycle. In the previous research, these two kinds of mobility are not included in the evaluation of TOD system as they have a lot of limitation on interacting with the facilities around railway station. In recent years, sharing bicycle becomes popular for solving the problem of the last one kilometer. Comparing to other means of mobility, sharing bicycle is more flexible than bus and has a higher usage rate than private bicycles. In addition, the sharing bike users have a wider access area than the pedestrians. Thus, sharing bicycle is able to play an important role in TOD system. In Tokyo metropolis, there are over 1000 railway stations and more than 50% of residents commute by railway. Nevertheless, the bike sharing system is available only in some specific area, which indicates a lot of room for the development of bike sharing service. In this research, we follow the previous studies of walkability measurement and apply two indicators include road network connectivity and facility accessibility for illustrating how could bike sharing outperforms walking in a TOD system with the case study of Tokyo 23 wards. The result of this research can instruct the government on improving the current TOD system as well as help build a sustainable society.