Estimate access to bus stops

As a GIS analyst for the City of Cape Town, South Africa, you've been asked to better understand the local population's access to bus stops. This work supports the city's initiative to achieve the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030. Specifically, this project aims to understand SDG 11.2.1, or the "proportion of population that has convenient access to public transport, by sex, age and persons with disabilities" (United Nations). This knowledge allows decision makers to identify and address gaps in transportation access for at-risk groups.

In this tutorial, you'll access the city's bus stop locations, buffer them, and calculate the percentage of the local population that lives within 2 kilometers of bus stops.

This tutorial was last tested on April 7, 2026.

Requirements

• ArcGIS organizational account with a Publisher, Facilitator, or Administrator role (see options for software access)
• 0.965 credits

Estimate access to bus stops

Before you can perform an analysis, you need to create a map and add data to it. You'll start by adding data from the City of Cape Town to a map.

Open a blank map

First, you'll open a blank web map in Map Viewer.

1. Sign in to your ArcGIS organizational account.

   Note:

   If you don't have an organizational account, see options for software access.

2. On the ribbon, click Map.

   

   A map opens with the Topographic basemap.

   

Add data to the map

Next, you'll search for and add data to your map. First, you'll add a layer representing the bus stops in Cape Town.

1. If necessary, on the Contents (dark) toolbar, click Layers. In the Layers pane, click Add.

   

   The Add layer pane appears.

   

2. From the My content drop-down menu, choose ArcGIS Online.

   

   You'll search for data pertaining to bus stops and Cape Town's population.

3. In the search box, type MyCiti Bus Stops.

   

   The City of Cape Town's dataset for bus stops, Integrated rapid transit (IRT) system MyCiTi Bus Stops, appears.

4. For the Integrated rapid transit (IRT) system MyCiTi Bus Stops feature layer, click the Add button.

   

   The layer is added to the map.

   

   Now, you'll add a dataset representing the local administrative boundaries. It contains a population count for the city that you'll need during analysis later.

5. In the search box, clear the previous search and type South Africa Municipality Boundaries.
6. Find the South Africa Municipality Boundaries layer and click Add.

   

   The South Africa Municipality Boundaries layer is added to the map.

   

   Now that you've added all the necessary data to your map for analysis, you'll turn off the boundaries layer until you need it later for analysis.

7. In the Add layer pane, click the Back button.

   

8. In the Layers pane, point to the South Africa Municipality Boundaries layer and click the Visibility button to turn it off.

   

   Next, you'll rename the Integrated rapid transit (IRT) system MyCiTi Bus Stops layer.

9. For the Integrated rapid transit (IRT) system MyCiTi Bus Stops layer, click the Options button and choose Rename.

   

10. For Title, type Bus Stops. Click OK.

    

    Next, you'll save your map.

11. On the Contents toolbar, click Save and open and click Save as.

    

    The Save map window appears. You'll give your map a name.

12. In the Save map window, for Title, type Access to Public Transit.

    

13. Click Save.

    The map is saved as an item in your ArcGIS account.

Buffer the bus stops

Now that you have the bus stop locations on your map, you're almost ready to better understand the population within 2 kilometers of those bus stops. However, you need a polygon layer that represents the 2 kilometer area. To create this area, you'll use the Create Buffers tool.

Note:

Sustainable Development Goal 11.2.1 does not specifically define a distance for "convenient access." Therefore, a distance of 2 kilometers has been chosen for this example workflow. This value may vary based on a study area's context, such as terrain.

Additionally, the Create Buffers tool does not take into account potential barriers, such as rivers or highways. For a more robust access workflow, see Spatial approaches to determine accessibility.

1. On the Settings (light) toolbar, click Analysis.

   

   The Analysis pane appears.

2. Click Tools.

   

   A list of analysis tool categories appears.

3. Expand Use proximity and click Create Buffers.

   

   The Create Buffers pane appears. You'll use this tool to create a 2-kilometer buffer around each bus stop.

4. In the Input features section, for Input layer, click Layer.

   

   The Select layer window appears, showing a list of layers that are in the map. You'll choose the layer for your bus stops.

5. In the Select layer window, click the Bus Stops layer.

   

   The Input layer parameter is updated with the layer you chose. There are 955 bus stops in this dataset.

   

   Next, you'll set the distance for the buffers. You'll use a distance of 2 kilometers.

6. In the Buffer settings section, for Distance values, type 2 and click Add.

   

   Next, you'll set the unit of measurement.

7. For Units, choose Kilometers, or verify it is already selected.

   

   Now, you'll set the Overlap policy. Since many of the bus stops are close to each other, their 2-kilometer buffers will overlap. To remove the overlap in the buffers, you'll have the tool dissolve the boundaries of the individual bus stop buffers.

8. For Overlap policy, choose Dissolve.

   

9. In the Result layer section, for Output name, type Bus Stop Buffer.

   

   Before running the tool, you'll calculate the number of credits that this tool will use. The number of credits used varies by tool and the number of input features.

   Note:

   To learn more about credits, see Credits by capability.

10. Click Estimate credits.

    

    The tool will consume 0.955, or less than 1, credits.

11. Click Run.

    Note:

    The tool may take a minute or two to complete.

    The result layer, Bus Stop Buffer, is added to the map.

    

Enrich the buffered area

Now that you know the area within 2 kilometers of the bus stops, you need to determine the total population within this area. To do this, you'll use the Enrich tool.

Note:

To learn more about the Enrich tool, read about Esri demographics.

1. In the Create Buffers pane, click the Back button.
2. In the Tools pane, expand Enrich data and click Enrich Layer.

   

   First, you'll choose the layer that you want to enrich.

3. In the Features to enrich section, under Input features, click Layer.
4. In the Select layer window, choose Bus Stop Buffer.

   Next, you'll pick the variable for population.

5. In the Enrichment data section, under Enrichment variables, click Variable.

   

   The Data Browser window appears.

   

   You can search for variables of interest. You'll add a variable for the total population.

6. Click Population.

   

7. Under Choose a Popular Variable, check the box next to 2025 Total Population.

   

8. Click Select.

   Note:

   For this tutorial, you only selected the 2025 Total Population variable. However, there are hundreds of additional variables that you can choose when using the Enrich Layer tool. If you select additional variables, this consumes additional credits.

   Next, you'll give your output layer a name.

9. In the Enrich Layer pane, in the Result layer section, for Output name, type Bus Access Population.

   

   Before you run the tool, you'll estimate the number of credits that will be used.

10. Click Estimate credits.

    The tool will use 0.01 credits.

11. Click Run.

    Note:

    The tool may take a minute or two to complete.

    When the tool finishes, the Bus Access Population layer is added to the map.

    

    Although this layer looks similar to the buffer layer you created, the Bus Access Population layer has an estimate of the population living within its boundaries.

Calculate the percentage of the population near bus stops

You're now ready to calculate the percentage of the population that lives within 2 kilometers of a bus stop. You'll divide the population calculated using the Enrich Layer tool by the total population of the city and multiply it by 100.

1. In the Layers pane, turn off the Bus Stop Buffer and Bus Stops layers.

   

   The only layer visible in the map is the Bus Access Population layer.

2. In the map, click the Bus Access Population layer.

   The pop-up window appears.

   

   The value for the 2025 Total Population, calculated by the Enrich Layer tool, is 1,536,863. Next, you'll find the population for Cape Town.

3. In the Layers pane, turn off the Bus Access Population layer. Turn on the South Africa Municipality Boundaries layer.
4. In the map, click inside the City of Cape Town polygon.

   

   The pop-up window appears.

   

   The total population for the city is 4,901,767.

   Note:

   To learn more about the municipalities' dataset, read about South Africa regional data.

   Ideally, when performing calculations, you want the population data to be from the same year. However, this is not always possible. In this case, the enriched population data is from 2023 and Cape Town's population count is from 2021.

   Now that you know the population count for the areas close to bus stops and for the entire city, these numbers can be divided to determine the percentage of the population living close to bus stops.

5. Using a calculator, divide 1,536,863 by 4,901,767. Then, multiply it by 100.

   The percentage of the population living within 2 kilometers of a bus stop is 31.4 percent. Conversely, this means that 68.6 percent of the population lives more than 2 kilometers from the nearest bus stop. Knowing this information helps urban planners better understand how much of the local population can or cannot access bus stops as a means of public transportation. These calculations can help guide future planning efforts.

   Finally, you'll save your map.

6. On the Contents toolbar, click Save and open and click Save.

   

In this tutorial, you analyzed geographic data to better understand bus stop distribution for Cape Town and for SDG 11.2.1. You added bus stop locations to a map and created a 2-kilometer buffer around those locations. Finally, you estimated the percentage of the population that lives close to a bus stop using the Enrich Layer tool.

To continue learning about SDG 11.2.1 and the bus stops in Cape Town, see the tutorial Analyze bus stop distribution.

You can find more tutorials in the tutorial gallery.

Acknowledgements

• The Integrated rapid transit (IRT) system MyCiTi Bus Stops layer was obtained from The City of Cape Town.
• The South Africa Municipality Boundaries layer is provided by Michael Bauer Research GmbH and is licensed under the Esri Master License Agreement.
• World Topographic Map sources: Esri, TomTom, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community