Transport mobility of Russian super-large cities

Abstract

The relevance of the issue under study stems from the lack of a method and indicators for determining the population’s level of transport mobility. The purpose of the article is to develop a method for assessing the level of transport mobility. The analysis of studies on the quality of transport services has shown lack of attention to mobility as a public transport service for the public. There are currently no science-based criteria for assessing the mobility level of convenience for passengers who use various modes of public transport for their trips. The use of a transport mobility index will improve both the quality of passenger transport and the overall level of transport services. The developed method for assessing the level of transport mobility will allow researchers to look into the dynamics of the indicators and plan improvements to transport service quality. The presence of a welldeveloped metro network (more than one line) in cities provides a transport mobility index above 0.5, according to the study of Russia’s largest cities’ transport mobility index. Following the example of Rostov-on-Don, which has the smallest area of the cities under study, a high transport mobility index of 0.6 can be achieved through optimal organization of public transport within the city and without a metro network. The existence of lengthy dedicated public transport lanes does not guarantee a high index of urban mobility, as in Kazan. This is due to a predominance of bus lanes being introduced in the central part of the city: this does not allow the outlying areas and the city as a whole to be given a high level of transport mobility.