Enhancing Urban Mobility with Aerial Ropeway Transit (ART): Future Accessibility Impacts of Multimodal Transit Expansion Scenarios
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
2025
Subject Area
place - asia, place - urban, mode - other, policy - congestion, policy - social exclusion, infrastructure - stop, planning - methods, planning - network design, planning - integration, land use - planning, land use - impacts
Keywords
accessibility, multimodal, planning and development, public transportation, public transportation marketing and fare policy, ridership, transit
Abstract
Aerial ropeway transit (ART) systems are emerging alternatives to augment existing transit systems in congested cities in the Global South, especially in urban areas with limited transit coverage because of road width constraints or topography. Integration of aerial cable car stations to an existing transit network can improve the overall accessibility of various population segments with significant positive benefits in relation to reducing transport-related social exclusion. This study evaluated the impact of introducing ART in the city of Varanasi (India) and assessed the spatial accessibility improvements to critical facility locations such as heritage sites, educational institutions, hospitals, and employment centers. Several multimodal transit expansion scenarios were considered in this study and the potential benefits of each case were quantified using the two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method. A multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach was subsequently employed for identifying the optimal locations of ART stops. Microlevel analysis findings suggest that the mean accessibility values could increase up to 10.92% in the first phase of the ART implementation, which could subsequently increase to 24.7% and 49.8% for the subsequent transit expansion scenarios. The study also investigated the Varanasi ART DPR prepared by Varanasi Development Authority (VDA) and showed that a significant increase of 16% in accessibility levels could be achieved if optimal stop locations identified in this study were implemented. The proposed two-step (2SFCA+MCDM) method for identifying the optimal locations of ART stations in a multimodal transit network is expected to be an effective tool for transit system redesign using place-based accessibility measures.
Rights
Permission to publish the abstract has been given by SAGE, copyright remains with them.
Recommended Citation
Pani, A., Puppala, H., Jha, S., Gupta, A., Mukhopadhyay, A., & Dubey, A. (2025). Enhancing Urban Mobility with Aerial Ropeway Transit (ART): Future Accessibility Impacts of Multimodal Transit Expansion Scenarios. Transportation Research Record, 2679(2), 2144-2161.
