Assessing equity in park accessibility using a travel behavior-based G2SFCA method in Nanjing,China

Spatial equity of parks is a major concern in environmental justice studies. While many measurements have been used to evaluate access to parks, few studies have considered the impact of travel behavior on park accessibility. This study aims to establish a travel behavior-based Gaussian two-step floating catchment area (TB-G2SFCA) method to assess spatial equity of parks in the Nanjing region, and Local Moran's I index is applied to identify spatial agglomeration patterns in assessing equity. The results demonstrate that (1) the traditional single-mode model maybe cannot provide accurate approach to evaluating park accessibility while the TB-G2SFCA method can provide a more realistic park accessibility evaluation; (2) the inhabitants of most communities distributed south of the Yangtze River can obtain better park services than the northern areas; (3) the spatial disparities of equity in park accessibility are severe in three suburban districts, relatively minor in four central districts, and insignificant in two central districts. These findings may assist urban planners and policy makers to frame more reasonable policy and planning to improve spatial equity to parks in urban areas.     

Balancing time: Using a new accessibility measure in Rio de Janeiro

One of the most common applications of accessibility is in evaluating inequality in access to jobs. A vital factor to be incorporated by accessibility indicators when analyzing job accessibility is the competition for job positions by job seekers; otherwise, the results may be inaccurate or misleading. Despite efforts by researchers to develop accessibility measures that capture job competition, they fail to ensure that these measures are practical and easily interpretable and communicable, which in turn makes planners and policymakers continue to opt for more straightforward measures. In this paper we aim to fill this gap by providing a simple accessibility measure that accounts for competition effects, while remaining practical, intuitive, and highly communicable. The proposed indicator – Balancing Time – is applied to assess the inequality in job accessibility in 160 neighborhoods within the city of Rio de Janeiro, and the results are compared with the most popular indicator used in practice, the cumulative opportunities. The findings suggest that Balancing Time overcomes some of the limitations of cumulative opportunities and that it is a useful tool for planners, particularly in the cities with job opportunities concentrated in central areas. Given its simplicity, Balancing Time is especially relevant in the context of the Global South, where most transport agencies face data limitations and have low skilled technical staff.     

Public transport accessibility accounting for level of service and competition for urban opportunities: An equity analysis for education in Santiago de Chile

Several cities around the world have changed their transportation planning paradigm, understanding that the prime goal is to provide access to opportunities for everyone. To address this goal, public transport plays a fundamental role and, therefore, it is key for developing a sustainable and equitable city.This paper proposes a methodology to analyze access to opportunities through public transport incorporating the user's valuation of attributes that impact the level of service on his/her trip and the competitiveness for urban opportunities. Using data from Santiago, Chile, we applied the proposed methodology to analyze accessibility to higher-quality public primary schools. We compare total travel time (TTT) with a proposed measure of total generalized travel time (TGTT) using simple potential and competitive accessibility indicators, accounting for the subjective valuation of walking time, travel time, waiting time, comfort and transfers, and translating them into in-vehicle time units.We find that the inclusion of competition has a more substantial impact than including the subjective valuation of the level of service in the accessibility to educational opportunities. Using competitive measures with TGTT, we found that around 20% of the zones in Santiago have at least a 50% deficit of higher-quality public education, and 71% of them are in peripheral areas. Furthermore, these zones, where medium and low-income population usually lives, can experience, on average, 1–2 transfers, 4–5 passengers per square meter, and 15-min waiting. We conclude that the proposed methodology provides a more comprehensive way to understand accessibility by incorporating the traveling experience, allowing to determine how and where to intervene to effectively improve accessibility, with a focus on urban equity.     

Accessibility modelling: predicting the impact of planned transport infrastructure on accessibility patterns in Edinburgh,UK

The achievement of good spatial accessibility and equity in the distribution of urban services is one of the supreme goals for urban planners. With Scottish Government backing, the City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) has started to construct a tram network to cater for the future needs of Scotland’s capital city by providing an integrated transport solution using trams and buses. Spatial Network Analysis of Public Transport Accessibility (SNAPTA) which is a GIS-based accessibility model has been developed to measure the accessibility by public transport to different urban services and activities. The model responds to several limitations in other existing accessibility models in planning practice. It offers an alternative and practical tool to help planners and decision makers in examining the strengths and weaknesses of land use – transport integration. SNAPTA has been applied to a pilot study in Edinburgh city to identify the contribution of the infrastructure improvements of the tram system and Edinburgh South Suburban Railway (ESSR) to improved accessibility by public transport to six types of activity opportunities. This paper outlines the concept and methodology of the SNAPTA model, and presents the findings related to this pilot study with a focus on changes in potential accessibility to jobs between four different public transport network scenarios. The accessibility values so obtained help to identify the gaps in the coverage of the public transport network and the efficiency in the spatial distribution of urban services and activities. The findings focus on whether the planned transport infrastructures for Edinburgh will lead to better accessibility and reduced inequity (in terms of accessibility) across the city.     

Public transit accessibility approach to understand the equity for public healthcare services: A case study of Greater Mumbai

Urban public health is one of the most critical yet neglected aspects of urban planning in developing countries such as India. Inequity in access to government healthcare facilities affects the overall urban population and can substantially negatively impact the vulnerable population, who mostly rely on government healthcare services. In this paper, the accessibility measure for healthcare services by public transport is developed using travel time and the number of transit stops (accounting for transit connectivity) for Greater Mumbai. We also identified socially vulnerable wards (administrative units) using a Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), developed based on 16 indicators using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Developed regression models showed that the proposed accessibility measure explains the coverage and usage of healthcare services better than the traditional accessibility measure, which is based on only aggregate level travel time impedances. South Mumbai has relatively better accessibility for public hospitals and dispensaries, whereas, lower level of accessibility is observed in the eastern part for public healthcare services. Assessment for the spatial inequity based on the Gini index, bivariate Moran's I, and mean access value reveals a higher degree of spatial inequity for accessing government hospitals for the slum population. The study developed a decision framework to suggest effective policy measures, which can be prioritised based on SVI to reduce the disparity in the spatial distribution of accessibility to government healthcare systems for vulnerable groups. Our findings can aid transportation and urban planners, health researchers, and policymakers to improve accessibility in under-served areas and give special attention to the needs of the vulnerable population.     

A random utility maximization (RUM) based measure of accessibility to transit: Accurate capturing of the first-mile issue in urban transit

The paper presents a random utility-based measure of accessibility to explain the first-mile issue in urban transit. A discrete access stop/station location choice model is used to calculate the expected maximum utility of transit access choices as the measure of the proposed access to transit measurement approach. It captures the effects of changes in various personal, sociodemographic, transportation and land-use variables on access to urban transit that are overlooked by conventional approaches of accessibility measurements (count-based cumulative opportunities measures and gravity-based measures). The proposed accessibility to transit measurement approach is empirically measured for the Greater Toronto Area and is integrated into an operational tool programmed in a GIS-based traffic assignment software, TransCAD 7.0. This allows comparing it to the conventional measures, and the results reveal that the conventional measures tend to over-estimate access to transit.     

Measuring and visualizing place-based space-time job accessibility

Place-based accessibility measures, such as the gravity-based model, are widely applied to study the spatial accessibility of workers to job opportunities in cities. However, gravity-based measures often suffer from three main limitations: (1) they are sensitive to the spatial configuration and scale of the units of analysis, which are not specifically designed for capturing job accessibility patterns and are often too coarse; (2) they omit the temporal dynamics of job opportunities and workers in the calculation, instead assuming that they remain stable over time; and (3) they do not lend themselves to dynamic geovisualization techniques. In this paper, a new methodological framework for measuring and visualizing place-based job accessibility in space and time is presented that overcomes these three limitations. First, discretization and dasymetric mapping approaches are used to disaggregate counts of jobs and workers over specific time intervals to a fine-scale grid. Second, Shen's (1998) gravity-based accessibility measure is modified to account for temporal fluctuations in the spatial distributions of the supply of jobs and the demand of workers and is used to estimate hourly job accessibility at each cell. Third, a four-dimensional volumetric rendering approach is employed to integrate the hourly job access estimates into a space-time cube environment, which enables the users to interactively visualize the space-time job accessibility patterns. The integrated framework is demonstrated in the context of a case study of the Tampa Bay region of Florida. The findings demonstrate the value of the proposed methodology in job accessibility analysis and the policy-making process.     

The impact of local work and residential balance on vehicle miles traveled: A new direct approach

This paper introduces a new approach for explaining the effects of spatial competition for opportunities based on a cumulative opportunities measure of accessibility. We focus on the case of the labor market where some municipalities offer too few workplaces for their local population, forcing some of their residents to long drives. We apply this new accessibility measure to explain households' annual mileage in Switzerland using a Heckman model to account for carless households.We find that car travel demand is much greater in municipalities with a relative undersupply in the local labor market compared to a balanced or oversupplied local labor market. The results show that driving increases with greater distance to the labor market center. The model estimates allow policy makers and planners to quantify as a first assessment the expected average mileage in each municipality for new settlements and to identify municipalities with low expected annual mileage.     

Accessibility across transport modes and residential developments in Nairobi

A key goal of urban transportation planning is to provide people with access to a greater number of opportunities for interaction with people and places. Measures of accessibility are gaining attention globally for use in planning, yet few studies measure accessibility in cities in low-income countries, and even fewer incorporate semi-formal bus systems, also called paratransit. Drawing on rich datasets available for Nairobi, Kenya this analysis quantifies place-based accessibility for walking, paratransit, and driving using three different measures: a mobility measure quantifying how many other locations in Nairobi can be reached in 60 min, a contour measure quantifying the number of health facilities that can be reached in 60 min, and a gravity measure quantifying the number of health facilities weighted by a time-decay function. Health facilities are used because they are an essential service that people need physical access to and as a representation of the spatial distribution of activities more broadly. The findings show that place-based accessibility is highest for driving, then paratransit, then walking, and that there are high levels of access to health facilities near the Central Business District (CBD) for all modes. Additionally, paratransit accessibility is comparatively better in the contour and gravity measures, which may mean that paratransit is efficiently providing access based on the spatial distribution of services. The contour measure results are also compared across different residential levels, which are grouped based on neighborhood characteristics and ordered by income. Counterintuitively, the wealthiest areas have very low levels of place-based accessibility for all modes, while poor areas have comparatively better walking access to health facilities. Interestingly, the medium low residential level, characterized in part by tenement apartment buildings, has significantly higher accessibility than other residential types. One way to reduce inequality in access across income groups is to increase spatial accessibility for the modes used by low- and middle-income households, for example with policies that prioritize public transport and non-motorized travel, integrate paratransit with land use development, and provide safe, efficient, and affordable options.     

Grocery store accessibility: Different metrics – Different modal disparity results and spatial patterns

Most accessibility studies focus on within transport mode travel performance variations. However, modal accessibility disparity analysis adds value to the single-mode analysis by assessing the interaction between different transport modes and land use. A review of modal disparity studies shows that different accessibility metrics lead to different results, and so it is unclear how this impacts modal accessibility disparity variation. Moreover, the correspondence of the disparity spatial pattern between the different metrics is unclear. This research examines how three typical accessibility metrics (closest facility, cumulative opportunity, space-time constrained) impact modal disparity of grocery store accessibility in Warsaw, Poland. Further, local indicators of spatial association are used to identify areas of similarity and difference between the metrics. This study finds that cumulative opportunities during non-rush hours indicate the best car advantage for all travel times but indicate the best transit advantage during rush hours for 15 min. Generally, the space-time metric indicates better transit accessibility than the closest facility metric which in turn shows better transit accessibility than cumulative opportunities. The city center has significant spatial similarity while peripheral, especially dense, areas have significant spatial difference. Similarity areas have higher transit stop and population densities, while difference areas have average-to-low stop, population, road and store densities.     

Accessibility and Transit-Oriented Development in European metropolitan areas

This study investigates how urban form is related to accessibility. In particular, it explores the relationship between Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) and rail-based accessibility in a metropolitan area. The following overarching questions are addressed: Does a TOD-informed urban spatial structure correlate with high rail based accessibility? Which features of TOD are correlated to rail-based accessibility? These questions are answered through a comparative analysis of six metropolitan areas in Europe. The “TOD degree”, operationalized as the extent to which urban development is concentrated along rail corridors and stations, is correlated with a cumulative opportunity measure of rail-based accessibility to jobs and inhabitants.The comparison demonstrates that rail-based accessibility is higher in urban areas where inhabitants and jobs are more concentrated around the railway network and in lesser measure in urban areas with higher values of network connectivity. No correlation is found between rail-based accessibility and average densities of inhabitants and jobs.     

Spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the impact of high-speed railway on urban economy: Empirical study of Chinese cities

The relationship between high-speed railway (HSR) construction and economic development has become a significant concern in recent decades. This study uses the spatiotemporal panel data of China's HSR construction and economic development from 2008 to 2018 as bases to discuss the spatial–temporal heterogeneity of the relationship between HSR and the urban economy. Firstly, this research measures the accessibility of different dimensions (i.e. location accessibility, potential accessibility and daily accessibility), and assesses the regional disparity of HSR accessibility and urban GDP using the Gini index. Secondly, the direct and indirect effects of HSR on economic development are analyzed from the global perspective by using the spatial Durbin model. Lastly, the geographically and temporally weighted regression model is applied to assess the spatial–temporal heterogeneity of the correlation between HSR and economic development from a local perspective. The conclusions are as follows. (1) The construction of HSR might reduce the regional disparity of daily accessibility, but expand the disparity of potential accessibility and location accessibility. (2) From a global perspective, HSR has a significant positive impact on urban economic development, but this impact was mainly produced by the spillover effect and not the direct effect. Specifically, the smaller the spatial–temporal distance between cities, the higher the level of regional integration and the better the economic development of cities. (3) The HSR impact on urban economic growth has a periodic feature. The stimulation of large-scale railway construction will expand the economic effect of HSR, although network improvement will gradually converge the corresponding impact. (4) From a local perspective, the HSR impact on economic development has significant spatial heterogeneity. Although HSR has a certain inhibitory effect on the economic development of Eastern China, it has a positive impact on the economic growth of the western region.     

Modelling the cost of providing ambulance services

The aim of this paper is to study how regional demography and accessibility patterns influence the cost of providing ambulance services. A secondary aim is to project future costs and demand for ambulance services based on population projections. We use data from south-east Norway, an area with both urban and rural areas. Our results show that accessibility patterns, urbanisation and demography are important factors in determining costs. Furthermore, an ageing population and an ongoing process of urbanisation will have an impact on both the demand for ambulance transport and the cost of providing these services.     

Modeling job accessibility using online map data: An extended two-step floating catchment area method with multiple travel modes

Current quantitative measures of job accessibility rarely consider the interaction between job opportunities and labor force, and the effects of dynamic travel mode choice. Drawing upon multiple open-source datasets, we develop a job accessibility index by extending the two-step floating catchment area method (2SFCA). The job accessibility indices are calculated for different commuting scenarios concerning distance, time, and travel modes. The results suggest that job accessibility is very sensitive to travel modes, and using a single travel mode would contribute to a biased job accessibility index. The job accessibility indices with combined travel modes are more geographically balanced than using a single travel mode. Furthermore, the new index is employed to examine the spatial pattern of job accessibility and explore the relationship between job accessibility, housing, and population in the Pudong district, Shanghai. The new job accessibility indices manifest the impacts of ring roads on the spatial distribution of job accessibility. A comparative analysis shows that the floating population has poor driving-based job accessibility but can access job opportunities using public transit. Also, poor job accessibility leads to low rent prices but has little impact on medium-high rent. Both transit-based and drive-based job accessibility indices are positively related to housing prices. Our study highlights the importance of considering dynamic travel mode choice in job accessibility research. The research outcomes also contribute to the literature on spatial mismatch by revealing the unique relationship between job accessibility, housing, and population in urban China.     

Literature review on urban transport equity in transitional China: From empirical studies to universal knowledge

Rapid urbanization and a drastic socioeconomic transition from the centrally planned system to a market system in China provide a rare opportunity of observing urban transport equity. Literature on urban transport equity in Chinese cities is increasing. However, our understanding of urban transport equity in China is dominated by individual empirical studies, and an overall picture remains absent. This paper contributes the first literature review on urban transport equity in transitional China. Two key questions are answered. They are how transport equity is understood and examined in China, and what progress can be made to obtain universal knowledge of urban transport equity. This paper addresses the two questions by engaging with recent theoretical dialogue between the political philosophy of justice and Western transport equity research. This theoretical dialogue reconceptualizes transport equity into the equitable accessibility distribution mediated by institutional architecture to achieve equality of social opportunity among people. Based on a critical review of equity-concerned China transportation research and its reconceptualization, we propose an agenda for furthering urban transport equity research in transitional China. This research agenda calls for a shifted research focus (a) on evaluating the accessibility distribution of specific transport projects and policy, (b) on unpacking the political economy of transitional urban transport governance that determines the triumph/failure of the pro-growth/pro-equity accessibility distribution in the real setting, (c) on tracking the impact of accessibility distribution on disadvantaged groups' socioeconomic status and social mobility and putting forward appropriate policy/institution to improve the accessibility of disadvantaged groups, and (d) on revealing how the emerging social trends (e.g., information technology revolution and the aging society) reshape the individual capability to move/accessibility distribution.     

Perceived accessibility: What it is and why it differs from calculated accessibility measures based on spatial data

Accessibility is usually evaluated using indicators calculated from spatial data. However, perceived accessibility, defined as the perceived potential to participate in spatially dispersed opportunities, is often poorly reflected by these calculated measures. This paper sets out to explain the mechanisms that lead to these mismatches. A conceptual model is constructed to establish what factors shape perceived accessibility. A schematic framework shows that mismatches between a calculated indicator and perceptions can stem from inaccuracies in awareness as well as from inaccuracies in the measure if the measure fails to take account of the subjective evaluations of accessibility components. When evaluating the performance of land-use and transport system configurations, calculated measures based on spatial and transport data only serve as proxies for how accessibility is actually experienced. This paper argues that bringing perceived accessibility to the fore of accessibility-based planning, by acknowledging and evaluating potential mismatches with calculated accessibility indicators, will advance the evolution from mobility-based to accessibility-based planning.     

Transit-based job accessibility and urban spatial structure

Job accessibility is a measure of people, opportunities, and transportation system that are fundamental elements of urban spatial structure. Therefore, job accessibility can be used as a tool to understand urban spatial structure. Studying transit-based job accessibility can provide more insight into inner cities. To study transit-based job accessibility, a person-based approach is needed in order to take full consideration of the elements. However, person-based approaches are substantially restricted by the availability of individual trip data. This paper takes a simulation approach to study transit-based job accessibility. First, transit-dependent worker agents are generated using a population synthesis. Then the agents are enabled with job search and commuting capabilities. Once the agents are deployed in a commuting simulation, individual commuting trips are recorded. An individual job accessibility index is developed based on simulated commuting trips. The index is normalized with an expected value of 1.0 and a measurable uncertainty level, which makes it easy to interpret and suitable for cross-regional studies. A case study is conducted in Tucson, Arizona, where about 10,000 transit-dependent worker agents produce more than 600,000 individual commuting trips during morning and afternoon peak hours. Census block, group-level job accessibility shows a random spatial pattern that coincides with a dispersed urban spatial structure of the case study area.     

Transit Deserts: Equity analysis of public transit accessibility

Areas, where disadvantaged and transit-dependent populations are provided with inadequate amounts of transit supply, can be labeled transit deserts. Exploring transit deserts may help transit agencies improve accessibility to services while improving transit distribution and equity. This study utilizes the concepts of transit demand and transit supply to identify transit deserts in the City of Dallas. The comprehensive public transit accessibility (CPTA) score is introduced to evaluate accessibility to transit and to provide a holistic view of transit supply. While previous studies have primarily used proximity or spatial indicators to describe accessibility, this study utilizes a comprehensive set of spatial and temporal measures (connectivity to the network, connectivity to destinations, service frequency, flexibility, and time efficiency) to estimate accessibility to transit. Overlapping areas of high demand (transit dependency) and low supply (as measured using the CPTA) are then characterized as transit deserts. The CPTA score and its application to the analysis of transit deserts provides a universal framework which can be broadly applied by transit agencies, city officials, and transit stakeholders. The contributions of this study are as follows: first, developing a comprehensive framework to estimate transit supply or accessibility; and second, introducing a methodology for identifying transit deserts.     

Accessibility measurements in São Paulo,Rio de Janeiro,Curitiba and Recife,Brazil

Increasing attention is given to public transport services in cities of the Global South as a tool to enhance social inclusion and support economic development. Against this background, developing and evaluating indicators that quantify the distribution of public transport services from a social equity perspective is essential. The aim of the study is, therefore, to assess the equity of public transport services in four metropolitan regions in Brazil (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba and Recife) with two commonly used indicators of public transport provision. The first indicator measures proximity to rapid transit infrastructure (bus rapid transit, light rail and heavy rail stops with high frequency throughout the day), and the second measures accessibility to jobs by public transport. While simple indicators of proximity to public transport stops are most commonly used given their ease of operationalization and communication, accessibility to job indicators are more representative of the benefits provided to individuals by the public transport network. Combining these two indicators in one study provides a quantitative assessment of the socio-spatial distribution of public transport services in four large metropolitan areas in Brazil and the results demonstrate that lower-income households are disadvantaged in terms of public transport services in all four metropolitan areas. Furthermore, the results highlight the importance of quantifying accessibility by public transport, in addition to proximity to rapid transit, and thereby sheds light on the importance of developing openly available public transport schedules and geographic data. This study is of relevance to planners and researchers wishing to measure and evaluate public transport equity in the Global South.     

Measuring the long-distance accessibility of Italian cities

Long-distance accessibility is a crucial element for economic development and for territorial cohesion. To be revealing, however, a measure of accessibility must not only consider the distance or travel time of a single mode, but should include the fares, the frequency and the interchanges of all available modes.The paper aims to address whether and where there is an accessibility problem between Italian regions, through a comprehensive measure of accessibility covering the entire Italian territory. The measure used in the paper is potential accessibility, with an exponential decay impedance function. Different from similar studies, this one gives a more in-depth definition of impedance parameters due to the availability of a transport model that includes the entire Italian long-distance supply (roads, coaches, long-distance rail services, air services, and ferries). The opportunities at destination are proxied by population, and private and public sector employees.The main outputs are detailed maps of accessibility that are significantly more realistic than using simple infrastructure indicators or single-mode measures. In addition, some policy conclusions are drawn in terms of past and future investment policies.