Pedestrian Accessibility and Residential Density around the Tren Urbano Rail Transit System, San Juan Metropolitan Region

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1 Department of Geography and Planning The University of Akron Pedestrian Accessibility and Residential Density around the Tren Urbano Rail Transit System, San Juan Metropolitan Region Agustín B. Graterole Transportation Systems and Planning Agustín B. Graterole Page 1 11/4/2009

2 INDEX 1. Introduction 3 a) Tren Urbano & Study Area 3 b) Problem 5 c) Research Questions 6 2. Data & Methodology 8 a) Pedestrian Accessibility 8 i. GIS Network Analyst Service Areas 8 ii. Pedestrian Accessibility Score 9 b) Residential Density within Pedestrian Service Areas Results 11 a) Pedestrian Accessibility Score 12 b) Residential Density within Pedestrian Service Areas Conclusion Data Sources References 19 Agustín B. Graterole Page 2 11/4/2009

3 INTRODUCTION Tren Urbano & Study Area The Tren Urbano (Urban Train) is a fully automated rapid transit that serves the metropolitan area of San Juan in Puerto Rico, which includes the municipalities of San Juan, Bayamón, and Guaynabo. These are located on the north-northeastern part of the island on a coastal and valley type region. As of the year 2000, the accumulated total population of these three municipalities was of 758,471. The main objectives of the Tren Urbano are to offer an alternate means of transportation, alleviate traffic congestion by automobiles, and enhance job accessibility in the region. Four years after the Department of Transportation and Public Works of Puerto Rico submitted the official Tren Urbano proposal in 1989, the Federal Transit Administration approved the project s financing. During 1996 and 1997, seven design-build contracts were awarded for different segments of the Tren Urbano Phase 1 system. A year or so later in 1999, construction of the rail transit system began. The first and only current phase (i.e. Phase 1) of the Tren Urbano was inaugurated on December The length of this track extends for 10.7 miles throughout the suburban municipalities of Bayamón and Guaynabo, and ends at the central business district of San Juan. The train features 16 stations, most of them in San Juan, which are located on elevated platforms, at ground level, and below ground level like that of a subway (Fig. 1). Agustín B. Graterole Page 3 11/4/2009

4 LEGEND Elevated Ground Subway Parking BAYAMON GUAYNABO SAN JUAN Figure 1: "Tren Urbano Track Alignment and Stations; Puerto Rico". Source: DTOP. Agustín B. Graterole Page 4 11/4/2009

5 Problem Since the inauguration of the Tren Urbano, a problem with the quantity of ridership has troubled the rail transit system. Significant low ridership numbers has brought economic problems and planned future phases are being delayed. As of the year 2009, only about one third (i.e. 40,000) of the expected number of riders uses the rail transit system on a weekday basis. Although improving from an average weekday ridership of 25, 902 in the period of (Alternative Concepts Inc.), the gap between current ridership and the expected future ridership has continued to grow. To maintain the system s operation while being in debt, such measures as halting construction of station s parking areas, adding traffic lights on station areas but that are not currently operational, and lowering the frequency of landscaping maintenance have been enacted. At least on one occasion, electricity service which is provided by the national electric company (i.e. Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica) has been cut off because of debt. One determining factor for increasing ridership is the accessibility to the 16 train stations. People can access stations by the following modes of transportation: walking, bicycling, driving private automobiles, or by using other modes of public transit. A 2008 Tren Urbano survey revealed that the majority of the riders mode of arrival to stations was by walking (Fig. 2). Since walking is currently the predominant mode of transportation to stations (i.e. 50%) this study will focus on usage of the Tren Urbano by pedestrians. Figure 2: "Mode of Arrival to the Tren Urbano Stations, 2008". Source: Alternative Concepts Inc. Agustín B. Graterole Page 5 11/4/2009

6 Research Questions Just over a decade ago before the construction of the Tren Urbano began, key transportation planners from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Ming Zhang, Qing Shen, and Joseph Sussman, published the second part of a case study on the Tren Urbano project and its potential impact on job accessibility, Strategies to Improve Job Accessibility, Case Study of Tren Urbano in San Juan Metropolitan Region In this case study, the authors recommended four policy scenarios for the Tren Urbano s success. Two of the four policy scenarios dealt with walking accessibility and type of residential land use development in station areas: a) Creation of pedestrian-friendly station environments. This would be stations with good pedestrian accessibility through the surrounding street and sidewalk networks. According to the planners, current and future walking paths should be appropriate in a way that would help improve the image of the rail transit as a desirable commuting mode. b) Higher land development intensity in station areas. Since 25 household units per hectare is the desirable minimum density for transit operation (Calthorpe 1993), this was the amount highly recommended for future residential development. However a rate of 45 household units per hectare which is considered transit-oriented development (Calthorpe 1993) would make a bigger impact on the rail transit s success. On top of this, a higher floor area ratio of nonresidential land usage, and limiting large horizontal parking areas around stations was also recommended. Inspired by these recommended policy scenarios five years before the inauguration of the Tren Urbano in 2004 and also by the fact that half of the Tren Urbano riders mode of arrival to stations is by walking, this research sought to answer the two following questions: 1) Based on current walking paths (e.g. residential streets, sidewalks, etc.) around train stations, how much pedestrian accessible is each one of the sixteen Tren Urbano stations? Agustín B. Graterole Page 6 11/4/2009

7 2) Inside the actual pedestrian service area of each station, how does the quantity of residential density compares to that of the desirable minimum residential density for transit operation (i.e. 25 household units per hectare)? For the first question, it will be calculated the percentage of space that a Pedestrian Service Area (PSA) covers within the Maximum Pedestrian Service Area (MPSA). This percentage will be known as a Pedestrian Accessibility Score (PA-Score). A PSA will be all the area that is reachable from a station by walking up to 0.33 mile through walking paths (e.g. sidewalks, residential streets, etc.) On the other hand, the MPSA is made up of a 0.33 mile buffer around a station. A higher PA-Score will mean higher pedestrian accessibility, and vice versa. A PA-Score of at least 60% will have the acceptable amount of area for pedestrian accessibility (Zhang et. al. 1999). For the second question, it will be calculated the number of household units per hectare within each station s PSA. The higher the number of household units per hectare the higher residential density will be. 25 household units per hectare will be the desirable density for transit operation (Calthorpe 1993) By answering these questions, this study will identify which are the stations that need more attention for increasing both the extent of its PSA and the residential density within the PSA. This study s results may be used to measure and monitor improvement by future development in station areas. This research also serves as an example for applying Geographic Information Systems (GIS) methods for properly identifying the most suitable places to locate future Tren Urbano stations along planned routes. These methods can be easily applied for investigating other social and economic variables (e.g. income, total population, family size, etc.) in station areas. Agustín B. Graterole Page 7 11/4/2009

DATA & METHODOLOGY Pedestrian Accessibility In the following two sub-sections, it is covered how were the Pedestrian Service Areas delineated and how was the Pedestrian Accessibility Score calculated.

8 DATA & METHODOLOGY Pedestrian Accessibility In the following two sub-sections, it is covered how were the Pedestrian Service Areas delineated and how was the Pedestrian Accessibility Score calculated. Pedestrian Service Area (PSA) The GIS Network Analyst tool Make Service Area layer was used to generate a polygon representing a PSA around a Tren Urbano station. The Make Service Area Layer tool identifies all line features that are within a user assigned time or distance from an origin feature. A polygon is generated bounding all line features which meet the criteria (Fig. 3). Figure 3: "Make Service Area Layer". This is an example of an output generated by this tool. For this study, a distance of 0.33 mile (i.e. 1,760 feet) was used as the maximum distance that people would walk to and from a station. There are a lot of factors that influence people s walking behavior like walk trip purpose, physical environment, and socioeconomic background, among others (Gray 1992). Rail Transit analysis studies have mostly used the 0.25 mile approach while others adopt a 0.33 mile distance (Moon 1990). It was decided to use the latter in this Agustín B. Graterole Page 8 11/4/2009

9 research to study the largest reasonable area around stations by also taking into consideration residential spaces that would fall just outside a 0.25 mile analysis. TIGER/Line shapefiles were utilized to serve as the initial source of road data in station areas. However, it was later edited after identifying and removing road segments which were not located on residential areas and did not also include sidewalks. This was possible with the use of November 2006 satellite imagery and personal knowledge of the station s surroundings. In the same manner, new roads featuring sidewalks, sidewalks within station s parking areas, and newly constructed sidewalks per se, were identified and added to the analysis. Since some stations are less than a 0.33 mile apart and overlapping of their PSA polygons would happen, the No overlapping option was chosen within the Make Service Area Layer tool. This option will allocate service area polygons to the closest station in terms of the network distance. Also, the Generalized polygon type was chosen. It was determined that the Generalized option would suit better the analysis than the Detailed option since the study area is of a small scale. Pedestrian Accessibility Score (PA-Score) Once a PSA was delineated, its total area within the MPSA (i.e. all area falling within a 0.33 mile buffer around a station) was calculated. This result is presented as the PA-Score and is shown in a percentage format. The PA-Score is the result of mathematically dividing the total area of a station s PSA by the total area of the MPSA (i.e. 9,731,397.4 sq/ft), and then multiplied by 100. That is, if a station s PSA is half the size of the MPSA, then is would yield a PA-Score of 50%. A station with an acceptable PA-Score would need to have at least a score of 60%. This score is what a station located within a standard city grid network where each block is about 100 meters-wide would yield (Zhang et. al.1999). The higher the score is, the higher the pedestrian accessibility in the station area will be, and vice versa. In most cases 0.33 mile buffers will overlap between stations. It was decided that this study would analyze each station s pedestrian accessibility individually. As mentioned before, it Agustín B. Graterole Page 9 11/4/2009

10 was chosen that the PSA polygons where allocated with the No overlapping option. This way it is possible to see which station a walking path network would favor over another. A good question when locating stations is if it is necessary to locate a station close to another if it is not increasing pedestrian accessibility to the place of interest (e.g. central business district). Residential Density within Pedestrian Service Areas Residential density within station s PSA was examined in terms of household units per hectare. 25 household units per hectare is a desirable minimum density for transit operation (Calthorpe 1993). In order to calculate the number of household units per hectare within each station s PSA, shapefiles of census blocks from the 2000 US Census of Population and Housing was utilized. Each census block contained the total number of household units for a geographic area. It is important to note that this study based the PSA analysis on road data several years more recent than the census housing data. It was decided that the 2000 census housing data should not be projected for 2009 since it deals with residential development at a small scale. For a new data set on census housing, waiting for the 2010 census will be necessary. Several steps and processes where needed to accurately assign the total number of household units per hectare for each station s PSA. First, the Intersect overlay analysis method was applied between the PSA polygons and the census blocks polygons. However, due to the problem of census blocks data (i.e. MAUP) only using the Intersect method would be inadequate and highly inaccurate. The Intersect method alone would assign the total number of household units of a census block to be inside a PSA, even if just a small portion happens to be inside. For going around this problem another method was devised. In it, if a census block with a total of 100 household units just has 25% of its area within a PSA polygon, then only 25 household units will be considered to be inside the PSA, instead of the total of 100 which is what an Intersect alone would assign. Agustín B. Graterole Page 10 11/4/2009

RESULTS Figure 4 illustrates the extent of the Pedestrian Service Areas of each of the Tren Urbano stations in Bayamón, Guaynabo, and San Juan. A 0.

11 RESULTS Figure 4 illustrates the extent of the Pedestrian Service Areas of each of the Tren Urbano stations in Bayamón, Guaynabo, and San Juan. A 0.33 mile buffer around the stations representing the Maximum Pedestrian Service Area is also shown for comparison. All TIGER/Line road segments are featured without any editing. Figure 4: Pedestrian Service Areas (PSA) and Maximun Pedestrian Service Area (MPSA) for Tren Urbano Stations Agustín B. Graterole Page 11 11/4/2009

12 PA-Score Pedestrian Accessibility Score Graph 1 illustrates the PA-Scores of each Tren Urbano station from the highest to the lowest. Las Lomas station tops the list with a score of 61.3% while Martínez Nadal has the lowest with 30.7% (map of both stations shown ahead). The suggested acceptable PA-Score should be at least 60% Las Lomas Torrimar Domenech Roosevelt Río Piedras Hato Rey Sagrado Corazón Piñero Universidad Centro Médico Deportivo Jardines San Francisco Cupey Martínez Nadal Graph 1: "Pedestrian Accessibility Scores for Stations". The doted horizontal line at the 60% mark is the desirable minimum score. Agustín B. Graterole Page 12 11/4/2009

Figure 5 compares Las Lomas and Martínez Nadal adjacent stations Pedestrian Service Areas. For this map s purpose, all roads and walking paths are featured.

13 Figure 5 compares Las Lomas and Martínez Nadal adjacent stations Pedestrian Service Areas. For this map s purpose, all roads and walking paths are featured. Figure 5: "Las Lomas and Martínez Nadal Stations". Las Lomas has a PA-Score of 61.8% while Martínez Nadal has 30.7%. Agustín B. Graterole Page 13 11/4/2009

14 It is possible to observe that the extent of a Pedestrian Service Area is determined by the extent and form of the walking paths network. As shown on Figure 5, the walking paths network of Las Lomas station (PA- Score 61.8%) has a high coverage in most directions and although its form is not typical to a city block grid, it works by funneling pedestrians to a central path that leads directly to the station. On the other hand, the walking paths network around Martínez Nadal station (PA-Score 30.7%) not only has a low all around coverage, but its form lacks symmetry, connectivity, and overall direction toward the station. Currently, only five stations are near the desired PA-Score. For increasing pedestrian accessibility, future development in station areas by urban designers and architects should aim toward designing walking paths directed to stations which would increase accessibility and decrease total walking distance from nearby areas. By taking these measures it can be increased the extent of developable land area for positively impacting the Tren Urbano. Agustín B. Graterole Page 14 11/4/2009

15 Household Units per Hectare Residential Density within Pedestrian Service Areas Graph 2 illustrates the number of household units per hectare inside each station s PSA. Río Piedras station tops the list with 28.5 while Cupey station is at the bottom with 2.7. The established desired minimum density for transit operation is 25 household units per hectare Río Piedras Martínez Nadal Las Lomas Sagrado Corazón Piñero Jardines Bayamón Domenech Graph 2: "Residential Density in Station's Pedestrian Service Areas". The doted horizontal line marks the desired minimum household units for transit operation. 6.9 Hato Rey Deportivo San Francisco Torrimar Roosevelt Centro Médico Universidad Cupey 2.7 Agustín B. Graterole Page 15 11/4/2009

Figure 6 shows Río Piedras station s PSA which has the highest residential density (i.e. 28.

Figure 7 shows Cupey station s PSA which has the lowest residential density (i.e. 2.

16 Figure 6 shows Río Piedras station s PSA which has the highest residential density (i.e household units per hectare). Figure 7 shows Cupey station s PSA which has the lowest residential density (i.e. 2.7 household units per hectare). Figure 6: "Land Use/Cover in Río Piedras Station s Pedestrian Service Area" Figure 7: "Land Use/Cover in Cupey Station s Pedestrian Service Area" Agustín B. Graterole Page 16 11/4/2009

17 Locating stations on high density residential areas is vital for attracting potential riders. Río Piedras station had the highest residential density within its PSA (28.5 units per hectare). Figure 6 shows residential housing in Río Piedras which is in the form of buildings with an average of three or four stories. It is also common for the first floor of a building to be used for commercial purposes. Since the Río Piedras station s PSA has a residential density just above the desired level for transit operation, it serves as an example for picturing how much would other station areas have to be developed for reaching the goal of 25 household units per hectare. Fourteen out of sixteen stations did not reach the desired residential density in their PSA. As it can be seen on Figure 7, residential land use in Cupey station is very limited. Also, it is important to point out the relationship and importance between residential areas and a limited PSA size. Since there are no sidewalks and safe crossings for the residential area just to the northwest which connect to the station, it is not promoted the use of the train by pedestrians from this potential source. Non-developable areas between roads and a cemetery, also limit future development. Residential density can be increased not only by residential development, but as seen in several station areas, creating walking paths for targeting already existing nearby residential areas. Agustín B. Graterole Page 17 11/4/2009

18 CONCLUSION Improving current pedestrian accessibility and level of residential density on the Tren Urbano s station areas is vital for increasing not only ridership from people residing nearby, but ridership as a whole. Although some current station areas have non-developable land or large horizontal parking areas, the following procedures for promoting walking to and from stations can be practiced: expansion of walking paths infrastructure while maintaining the shortest possible distance to a station, proper sidewalk width should be maintained, creation safe road intersection crossings, providing shaded areas, and increasing lighting and overall pedestrian safety. For increasing residential density on station areas, government initiatives and incentives for transit-oriented mixed land use development should be intensified in the near future. Agustín B. Graterole Page 18 11/4/2009

19 DATA SOURCES Departamento de Tranportación y Obras Públicas de Puerto Rico. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Website: Accessed October 5, Alternate Concepts Inc. Esquema de Gestion Operacional de Tren Urbano de Puerto Rico, Seminario Internacional. Bogotá, Colombia. September US Census Bureau (2009). United States. Website: Accessed October 5, United States Geological Survey (2009). United States. Website: Accessed October 8, REFERENCES Zhang, M., Q. Shen, and J. Sussman. Job Accessibility in the San Juan Metropolitan Region Implications for Rail Transit Benefit Analysis. In Transportation Research Record 1618, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1998, pp Zhang, M., Q. Shen, and J. Sussman. Strategies to Improve Job Accessibility Case Study of Tren Urbano in San Juan Metropolitan Region. In Transportation Research Record 1669, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1999, pp Calthorpe, P. The Next American Metropolis: Ecology, Community, and the American Dream. Princeton Architectural Press, New York, Gray, G.E., and L. Hoel. Public Transportation. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Moon, H. Land Use Around Suburban Transit Stations. Transportation, No. 17, 1990, pp Agustín B. Graterole Page 19 11/4/2009

ADOT Statewide Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Summary of Phase IV Activities APPENDIX B PEDESTRIAN DEMAND INDEX

ADOT Statewide Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Summary of Activities APPENDIX B PEDESTRIAN DEMAND INDEX May 24, 2009 Pedestrian Demand Index for State Highway Facilities Revised: May 29, 2007 Introduction