Using accessibility metrics and tools to deliver sustainable mobility

Abstract

Accessibility can be defined as the capacity to reach a place, event, opportunity, or social contact in a way that fulfils what people need (Capron 2002, Ferreira and Batey 2007, Ferreira and Batey 2010). Accessibility metrics calculate this capacity of reaching valuable destinations, opportunities or social contacts and they are constituted by four components (land use, transport, temporal and individual components) that interact in multiple ways (Geurs and van Wee 2004). Accordingly, accessibility metrics combine (1) travel costs, which represent transport network features,(2) opportunities, reflecting the land use characteristics, and (3) several other possible variables that describe the temporal constraints, needs, abilities and opportunities of individuals. In broader terms, accessibility metrics merge the pursuits of transport and urban planners, financial experts, social workers, logistics professionals, among many others, in designing built environments where people reach and meet their needs. Accessibility metrics constitute the building blocks of decision-support tools, which we will refer to as ‘accessibility tools’. Accessibility tools for planning can be defined as the geospatial applications based on accessibility metrics that assist government, communities, practitioners (Papa et al. 2016) that can assess accessibility performance. The ability that many of these tools have is to visually depict data and alternative scenarios. This makes them useful to facilitate communication among stakeholders as diverse as political decision-makers, technical experts, and community and business representatives.