Public Transport Nodes as Urban Attractors: Developing Indices to Capture Level of Service and Infrastructure

Paper in proceeding, 2026

Understanding how people move within cities and the infrastructure that supports this movement is essential for advancing sustainable urban planning strategies, such as the “X minute city” concept. Effective implementation of such strategies requires identifying both the flow of movement, shaped primarily by the configuration of the street network, and the infrastructure that enhances or consolidates it. Among the most influential amplifiers of movement are public transport nodes and stations, which function as key nodes in the urban fabric. These nodes not only concentrate flows of people as arrival and departure points, but also reflect the presence of long-term, resilient infrastructure, such as tram lines and railways, that help stabilize and strengthen movement patterns over time. This study introduces two indices to assess the potential of public transport nodes and stations, incorporating a multimodal perspective that considers level of service and the presence of dedicated infrastructure. The level of service index captures key operational characteristics, such as service frequency and connectivity, while the infrastructure index evaluates the structural resilience of public transport modes, considering multimodality and the presence of fixed infrastructure. These indices were developed using General Transit Feed Specification data for the Västra Götaland Region in Sweden, offering a spatial and operational representation of the regional public transport network. The development of these indices represents the first step in a broader methodology designed to integrate public transport, population distribution, and street network data to assess movement potential across urban areas. This approach supports the identification of areas in need of targeted interventions, whether to redistribute movement more efficiently, improve infrastructure, or reveal underused locations with potential to evolve into new local centers. These centers can play a vital role in realizing the vision of the X minute city, contributing to the creation of more accessible, resilient, and livable urban environments.