Mind Your Step
Network of Stations
Existing Step-free Stations
Optimised Step-free Station

Overview
Most built environments rely heavily on stairs. While elevators and ramps both exist, many designers choose not to use them. As of late 2020, only 29% of London's Tube stations were step-free (80 out of 272), with work underway in 12 more stations.

Mind Your Step aims to provide step-free access to as many London Underground stations as possible. The objective is to decide how to best select the next batch of stations to be converted into step-free.
The purpose of this project is to maximize the number of step-free passenger journeys. A total national budget constraint is fixed for the next batch of 12 stations, while the cost of conversion to step-free depends on the station's category. Also, the impact of service changes during a trip between two stations is omitted in the analysis of step-free journeys.

Initially, the network's structure is generated, and the stations are classified by their type (step-free or non step-free) and popularity (arriving / departing passengers). The journeys can then be identified as fully or partially step-free. Finally, the optimisation model is implemented in Python, using NetworkX, Pandas and PulP.
Study Release
The study is available upon request.

Material on this web site can be used freely
in any publication provided that:
  1. It is duly credited as a project by Mayar Ariss
  2. A PDF copy of the publication is sent to mayar313@mit.edu
Team
Lead Researcher
Mayar Ariss

Scientific Supervisor
Dr. Panagiotis Angeloudis

Web & Visualization
Mayar Ariss