Measuring relative non-motorized accessibility to retail activities

Abstract

Accessibility planning is a crucial alternative to mobility planning for reaching sustainable outcomes. Although there is a vast literature on accessibility, less attention is paid to accessibility as a relative concept, i.e., its relationship with the socio-economic characteristic of the population. While accessibility is known to vary by location, it also changes as a consequence of differences in individual willingness to reach destinations by certain transport modes. Using the city of Zaragoza, Spain as a case study, this paper evaluates relative non-motorized accessibility (walking and cycling) to three types of retail activities: daily, weekly, and incidental. First, a clustering process is used to identify four population groups according to their socio-economic characteristics (the young employed; the young unemployed; seniors and adults). Second, distance-decay functions based on time-willingness to reach retail destinations by non-motorized modes are compared between the four clusters of population. Third, relative accessibility maps based on gravity-based models are elaborated, highlighting places that exhibit statistical differences between the population clusters. The results indicate that willingness to reach retail stores on foot by seniors (>65 years old) was significantly different from the rest of groups analyzed, providing additional insights on how relative accessibility measurements can anticipate potential social exclusion risks.