Research Symposium

BIO

Susan Bakalarczyk is a freshman Civil-Environmental Engineering Honors student at Florida State University. She is from Palm Harbor, Florida; growing up in the Tampa Bay area developed her interest in creating urban development systems that reduce environmental impact and maintain the integrity to withstand natural disasters. Susan worked with her mentors, Dr. Li and Dr. Guo from the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the FAMU–FSU College of Engineering, to learn about and analyze public transportation systems in Tallahassee. She then used this knowledge to interpret spatial data surrounding Florida State University to evaluate how well the current public transportation system meets student demand and to identify possible ways to optimize planning. She will pursue additional projects related to development in the Leon County area in the future. Susan plans to work as a Civil Engineer in urban and transportation development to provide sustainable solutions and optimizations for public transportation planning.

Accessibility Analysis of Public Transit and Student Housing in Tallahassee

Abstract

Florida State University has a large student population and is located in the capital of Florida, because of this the university requires an efficient and organized form of public transportation for the students. This project aims to evaluate the accessibility of the Seminole Express public transit service for students living on and around Florida State University, and to identify any gaps in transportation.

This project calculates the accessibility score for residential blocks on and near campus relative to Seminole Express bus stop locations and identifies areas where student housing lacks sufficient access to public transportation. This was done with the use of StarMetro Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) combined with geographic and residential data which was mapped out and analyzed on the ArcGIS software. Spatial analysis of bus routes and student housing locations was used with the ArcGIS software to calculate the accessibility measures such as distance and different travel coverages. We concluded with a spatial analysis to assess the patterns in public transportation available in Tallahassee and surrounding areas.

This research has identified areas where student housing has limited access to bus services. This project shows how current transportation data and GIS can help create equitable and cost efficient public transit planning.

Keywords: infrastructure, transportation, engineering, urban planning