Many of the world’s most important cities are expanding rapidly without adequate transportation planning in place. People Near Rapid Transit (PNT) measures the number of residents in a city who live within a short walking distance (1 km) of high-quality rapid transit. This is a good way to estimate accessibility and rapid transit coverage in large cities. It is also a high-level proxy for integrating land use and transport, and the fundamental first step toward creating inclusive transit-oriented development (TOD)—compact, higher-density, mixed-use, walkable development centered around transit stations. ITDP researchers developed the PNT metric to measure the number of residents living within 1 km of rapid transit.
This metric, along with our corresponding report, serves as a crucial tool for understanding the accessibility of rapid transit in urban areas. The report, released in advance of the United Nations’ Habitat III conference, applies the PNT metric to 26 cities worldwide with high-capacity mass transit systems and the surrounding metropolitan regions.
Download the report People Near Transit: Improving Accessibility and Rapid Transit Coverage in Large Cities and read ITDP’s press release, published November 2016, here. If you would like to learn more about PNT data, contact us for additional details.