Benchmarking public transport level-of-service using open data

More efficient public transport is needed as urbanisation continues and cities grow. To identify best practices, there is a need for simple methods to benchmark public transport in different cities. This study suggests a simple method for benchmarking public transport level of service with available open data. The presented method provides data on the number of inhabitants reached by certain headway classes in defined urban areas, based on approximated acceptable walking distance to the nearest stop. Given that the definition of urban area is harmonized, the method can quickly provide comparable public transport level of service data between cities.