Measuring the Changes of Subway Accessibility Through the Service Area Territories: A Case Study of Fukuoka Subway Network

The expansion of subway networks can stimulate changes of accessibility of surrounding communities. The plan of future a network needs to be evaluated to examine the effect on existing networks and the accessibility of surrounding communities in order to prepare them for the changes of spatial physical dynamics. This research focused on the plan of a new subway station in the Japanese city of Fukuoka. The new station will be located in a prime site of the city and aims to link the old and new CBDs of Fukuoka city (Tenjin station district and Hakata station district). This methodology was introduced for measuring the changes of accessibility in order to indicate how much such plans could potentially benefit surrounding buildings. In this study, 12,237 buildings in the subject area including four major usages of Public Service, Mixed Use, Residential and Commercial were considered in the analysis, which uses a Reach Index to simulate the changes of accessibility between before and after operation of new subway stations. The results can be used to compare how expanding subway accessibility is associated with surrounding buildings. The changing of service area territories indicates the influence that a new subway station has on transportation networks.