Towards Sustainable and Inclusive Transit Environments: Quantifying Pedestrian Accessibility Efficiency and Equity for Temporarily Mobility-Impaired Pedestrians

Rail transit station areas are high-volume public spaces where pedestrian efficiency directly affects the operational quality, equity, and sustainability of public transport systems. However, temporarily mobility-impaired (TMI) pedestrians, such as people carrying luggage or pushing strollers, are often overlooked in station-area pedestrian design. This study quantifies walking-efficiency attenuation among TMI groups and identifies key micro-spatial factors influencing their mobility. Based on 96 typical paths around metro stations in Xiamen, China, real-world walking experiments were conducted with 566 volunteers, producing 1152 valid observations. A Random Forest model was used to predict walking efficiency under different spatial attributes and assess factor importance. The results show that TMI pedestrians walk significantly slower than unimpaired pedestrians and can become a major bottleneck in station-area circulation. Stroller users are most affected by ramp shape, while luggage carriers are particularly sensitive to path width. Partial dependence analysis indicates that a path width of 4.2–4.7 m and a ramp shape factor of 0.2–0.35 support higher efficiency and equity. The findings provide quantitative evidence for universal design and offer practical guidance for sustainable, inclusive, and people-centered transit-oriented development.