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journal of transport geography 12 2004 127 140 www elsevier com locate jtrangeo accessibility evaluation of land use and transport strategies review and research directions karst t geurs a bert ...

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                                                Journal of Transport Geography 12 (2004) 127–140
                                                                                                             www.elsevier.com/locate/jtrangeo
                   Accessibility evaluation of land-use and transport strategies:
                                               review and research directions
                                                  Karst T. Geurs a,*, Bert van Wee b
                       a Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, P.O. Box 1,
                                                           Bilthoven BA 3720, The Netherlands
                                                  b Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
           Abstract
              A review of accessibility measures is presented for assessing the usability of these measures in evaluations of land-use and
           transport strategies and developments. Accessibility measures are reviewed using a broad range of relevant criteria, including
           theoretical basis, interpretability and communicability, and data requirements of the measures. Accessibility impacts of land-use and
           transport strategies are often evaluated using accessibility measures, which researchers and policy makers can easily operationalise
           and interpret, such as travelling speed, but which generally do not satisfy theoretical criteria. More complex and disaggregated
           accessibility measures, however, increase complexity and the effort for calculations and the difficulty of interpretation. The current
           practice can be much improved by operationalising more advanced location-based and utility-based accessibility measures that are
           still relatively easy to interpret for researchers and policy makers, and can be computed with state-of-the-practice data and/or land-
           use and transport models. Research directions towards theoretically more advanced accessibility measures point towards the
           inclusion of individuals spatial–temporal constraints and feedback mechanisms between accessibility, land-use and travel behav-
           iour. Furthermore, there is a need for theoretical and empirical research on relationships between accessibility, option values and
           non-user benefits, and the measurement of different components of accessibility.
           2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
           Keywords: Accessibility; Land-use; Transport; Policy evaluation
           1. Introduction                                                    Several authors have written review articles on accessi-
                                                                              bility measures, often focusing on certain perspectives,
              Accessibility, a concept used in a number of scientific          such as location accessibility (e.g. Song, 1996; Handy
           fields such as transport planning, urban planning and               and Niemeier, 1997), individual accessibility (e.g. Pirie,
           geography, plays an important role in policy making.               1979; Kwan, 1998) or economic benefits of accessibility
           However, accessibility is often a misunderstood, poorly            (e.g. Koenig, 1980; Niemeier, 1997). Our review differs
           defined and poorly measured construct. Indeed, finding               from existing review articles in the following ways.
           an operational and theoretically sound concept of                  Firstly, accessibility measures are reviewed from differ-
           accessibility is quite difficult and complex. As a result,           ent perspectives, and we do not focus on one specific
           land-use and infrastructure policy plans are often eval-           perspective. The main purpose is to assess the usability
           uated with accessibility measures which are easy to                of accessibility measures in evaluations of both land-use
           interpret for researchers and policy makers, such as               and transport changes, and related social and economic
           congestion levels or travel speed on the road network,             impacts. Secondly, measures are reviewed according
           but which have strong methodological disadvantages.                to a broad range of relevant criteria, i.e. (a) theoretical
           This paper presents a thorough review of accessibility             basis, (b) interpretability and communicability, (c) data
           studies and research directions to improve the current             requirements and (d) usability in social and economic
           practice of land-use and transport policy appraisal.               evaluations. This review, based on an extensive litera-
                                                                              ture study (Geurs and Ritsema van Eck, 2001), will
                                                                              approach the different perspectives and components of
              *Corresponding author. Tel.: +31-30-274-3918; fax: +31-30-274-  accessibility in Section 2, the accessibility measures in
           4417.                                                              Section 3 and explore the conclusions in Section 4. Fu-
              E-mail address: karst.geurs@rivm.nl (K.T. Geurs).               ture research paths will be outlined in Section 5.
           0966-6923/$ - see front matter  2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
           doi:10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2003.10.005
             128                            K.T. Geurs, B. van Wee / Journal of Transport Geography 12 (2004) 127–140
             2. Accessibility measures: perspectives and components                 travel costs). The demand relates to both passenger
                                                                                    and freight travel.
                Accessibility is defined and operationalised in several           3. The temporal component reflects the temporal con-
             ways, and thus has taken on a variety of meanings.                     straints, i.e. the availability of opportunities at differ-
             These include such well-known definitions as the po-                   ent times of the day, and the time available for
             tential of opportunities for interaction (Hansen, 1959),              individuals to participate in certain activities (e.g.
             the ease with which any land-use activity can be reached              work, recreation).
             from a location using a particular transport system                4. Theindividualcomponentreflectstheneeds(depending
             (Dalvi and Martin, 1976), the freedom of individuals to               onage,income,educationallevel,householdsituation,
             decide whether or not to participate in different activi-               etc.), abilities (depending on peoples physical condi-
             ties (Burns, 1979) and the benefits provided by a                     tion, availability of travel modes, etc.) and opportuni-
             transportation/land-use system (Ben-Akiva and Ler-                    ties (depending on peoples income, travel budget,
             man, 1979). In our study, accessibility measures are seen              educationallevel,etc.)ofindividuals.Thesecharacter-
             as indicators for the impact of land-use and transport                 istics influence a persons level of access to transport
             developments and policy plans on the functioning of the                modes (e.g. being able to drive and borrow/use a car)
             society in general. This means that accessibility should               and spatially distributed opportunities (e.g. have the
             relate to the role of the land-use and transport systems               skills or education to qualify for jobs near their resi-
             in society, which, in our opinion, will give individuals or            dential area), and may strongly influence the total
             groups of individuals the opportunity to participate in                aggregateaccessibility result. Several studies (e.g. Cer-
             activities in different locations. Focusing on passenger                vero et al., 1997; Shen, 1998; Geurs and Ritsema van
             transport, we define accessibility as the extent to which               Eck, 2003) have shown that in the case of job accessi-
             land-use and transport systems enable (groups of) indi-                bility, inclusion of occupational matching strongly af-
             viduals to reach activities or destinations by means of a              fects the resulting accessibility indicators.
             (combination of) transport mode(s). Furthermore, the
             terms access and accessibility in the literature are               Fig. 1 shows the relationships between these compo-
             often used indiscriminately. Here, access is used when              nents and accessibility (as defined above), and relation-
             talking about a persons perspective, accessibility when            ships between the components themselves: here, the
             using a locations perspective.                                     land-use component (distribution of activities) is an
                A number of components of accessibility can be                   important factor determining travel demand (transport
             identified from the different definitions and practical                component) and may also introduce time restrictions
             measures of accessibility that are theoretically important          (temporal component) and influence peoples opportu-
             in measuring accessibility. Four types of components                nities (individual component). The individual compo-
             can be identified: land-use, transportation, temporal and            nent interacts with all other components: a persons
             individual.                                                         needs and abilities that influence the (valuation of) time,
                                                                                 cost and effort of movement, types of relevant activities
             1. The land-use component reflects the land-use system,              and the times in which one engages in specific activities.
                consisting of (a) the amount, quality and spatial dis-           Furthermore, accessibility may also influence the com-
                tribution opportunities supplied at each destination             ponents through feedback mechanisms: i.e. accessibility
                (jobs, shops, health, social and recreational facilities,        as a location factor for inhabitants and firms (relation-
                etc.), and (b) the demand for these opportunities at             ship with land-use component) influences travel demand
                origin locations (e.g. where inhabitants live), (c) the          (transport component), peoples economic and social
                confrontation of supply of and demand for opportu-               opportunities (individual component) and the time
                nities, which may result in competition for activities           needed to carry out activities (temporal component).
                with restricted capacity such as job and school vacan-              Following our definition of accessibility, an accessi-
                cies and hospital beds.                                          bility measure should ideally take all components and
             2. The transportation component describes the transport             elements within these components into account. In
                system, expressed as the disutility for an individual to         practice, applied accessibility measures focus on one or
                cover the distance between an origin and a destina-              more components of accessibility, depending on the
                tion using a specific transport mode; included are                perspective taken. Four basic perspectives on measuring
                the amount of time (travel, waiting and parking),                accessibility can be identified.
                costs (fixed and variable) and effort (including reli-
                ability, level of comfort, accident risk, etc.). This dis-       1. Infrastructure-based measures, analysing the (ob-
                utility results from the confrontation between supply               served or simulated) performance or service level of
                anddemand.Thesupplyofinfrastructure includes its                    transport infrastructure, such as level of congestion
                location and characteristics (e.g. maximum travel                   and average travel speed on the road network. This
                speed, number of lanes, public transport timetables,                measure type is typically used in transport planning.
                                                             K.T. Geurs, B. van Wee / Journal of Transport Geography 12 (2004) 127–140                                                                 129
                                                           Land-use component                                                                    Transport component
                                                              locations and                             travel demand                               passenger and
                                                             characteristics                                                                         freight travel
                                                               of  demand
                                                                                            available                        travel time,
                                                         supply        demand,              opportunities                     costs, effort        supply       demand
                                                                       competition
                                                              locations and                                                                           location and
                                                             characteristics                                                                       characteristics of
                                                            of opportunities                                                                         infrastructure
                                                                                                      Accessibility to
                                                                                                      opportunities
                                                            Temporal component                                                                    Individual component
                                                            • opening hours of shops       time restrictions                  needs, abilities
                                                              and services                                                    opportunities        • income,  gender, 
                                                            • available time for                                                                     educational level
                                                              activities                                                                           • vehicle ownership, etc.
                                                                                                          available time
                                                        = direct relationship             = indirect relationship            = feedback loop
                                                                         Fig. 1. Relationships between components of accessibility.
                2. Location-based measures, analysing accessibility at                                                 of measure is founded in the space–time geography
                                                                                                                                
                     locations, typically on a macro-level. The measures                                               of Hagerstrand (1970) that measures limitations on
                     describe the level of accessibility to spatially distrib-                                         an individuals freedom of action in the environment,
                     uted activities, such as the number of jobs within                                               i.e. the location and duration of mandatory activities,
                     30 min travel time from origin locations. More com-                                              the time budgets for flexible activities and travel
                     plex location-based measures explicitly incorporate                                               speed allowed by the transport system.
                     capacity restrictions of supplied activity characteris-                                      4. Utility-based measures, analysing the (economic) ben-
                     tics to include competition effects. Location-based                                                efits that people derive from access to the spatially
                     measures are typically used in urban planning and                                                 distributed activities. This type of measure has its
                     geographical studies.                                                                             origin in economic studies.
                3. Person-based measures, analysing accessibility at the
                     individual level, such as the activities in which an                                             Table 1 presents a matrix of perspectives on accessi-
                     individual can participate at a given time. This type                                       bility and components. The table shows each perspective
                Table 1
                Perspectives on accessibility and components
                    Measure                             Component
                                                        Transport component                 Land-use component                    Temporal component                  Individual component
                    Infrastructure-based                Travelling speed; vehicle-                                                Peak-hour period; 24-h              Trip-based stratification, e.g.
                      measures                          hours lost in congestion                                                  period                              home-to-work, business
                    Location-based measures             Travel time and or costs            Amount and spatial                    Travel time and costs may           Stratification of the
                                                        between locations of                distribution of the demand            differ, e.g. between hours           population (e.g. by income,
                                                        activities                          for and/or supply of                  of the day, between days            educational level)
                                                                                            opportunities                         of the week, or seasons
                    Person-based measures               Travel time between                 Amount and spatial                    Temporal constraints for            Accessibility is analysed at
                                                        locations of activities             distribution of supplied              activities and time avail-          individual level
                                                                                            opportunities                         able for activities
                    Utility-based measures              Travel costs between                Amount and spatial                    Travel time and costs may           Utility is derived at the
                                                        locations of activities             distribution of supplied              differ, e.g. between hours           individual or homogeneous
                                                                                            opportunities                         of the day, between days            population group level
                                                                                                                                  of the week, or seasons
            130                         K.T. Geurs, B. van Wee / Journal of Transport Geography 12 (2004) 127–140
            to focus on a certain component, ignoring other relevant      only have a direct impact on accessibility but also an
            elements of accessibility. Infrastructure-based measures      indirect impact, via the transport system. E.g. more
            do not include a land-use component; i.e. they are not        urbanisation in a densely populated area might increase
            sensitive to changes in the spatial distribution of activ-    congestion levels, and so the disutility of travel. This
            ities if service levels (e.g. travel speed, times or costs)   impact is expressed via the transport component.
            remain constant. The temporal component is explicitly         Thirdly, a measure should be sensitive to temporal
            treated in person-based measures and is generally not         constraints of opportunities. Finally, a measure should
            considered in the other perspectives, or treated only         take individual needs, abilities and opportunities into
            implicitly, for example by computing peak and off-peak         account. In addition, from these general criteria the
            hour accessibility levels. Person-based and utility-based     following five criteria can be derived according to which
            measures typically focus on the individual component,         an accessibility measure should behave, keeping all
            analysing accessibility on an individual level. Location-     other conditions constant:
            based measures typically analyse accessibility on a
            macro-level, but focus more on incorporating spatial          1. If the service level (travel time, costs, effort) of any
            constraints in the supply of opportunities, usually ex-          transport mode in an area increases (decreases),
            cluded in the other approaches.                                  accessibility should increase (decrease) to any activity
                                                                             in that area, or from any point within that area.
                                                                          2. If the number of opportunities for an activity in-
            3. Review of accessibility measures                              creases (decreases) anywhere, accessibility to that
                                                                             activity should increase (decrease) from any place.
            3.1. Criteria for accessibility measures                      3. If the demand for opportunities for an activity with
                                                                             certain capacity restrictions increases (decreases),
               This section reviews the different types of accessibility      accessibility to that activity should decrease (in-
            measures according to relevant criteria. Although there          crease).
            is no best approach for accessibility because different        4. An increase of the number of opportunities for an
            situations and purposes demand different approaches               activity at any location should not alter the accessibil-
            (Handy and Niemeier, 1997), several criteria can be              ity to that activity for an individual (or groups of
            derived to evaluate the usefulness and limitations of            individuals) not able to participate in that activity
            accessibility measures for different study purposes. Such         given the time budget.
            criteria can for example be found in Black and Conroy         5. Improvements in one transport mode or an increase
            (1977), Jones (1981) and Handy and Niemeier (1997).              of the number of opportunities for an activity should
            Here, we use criteria from the perspective or our defi-           not alter the accessibility to any individual (or groups
            nition of accessibility and the usefulness of the concept        of individuals) with insufficient abilities or capacities
            of accessibility in evaluations of land-use and transport        (e.g. drivers licence, education level) to use that mode
            changes. Our criteria are: (1) theoretical basis, (2) op-        or participate in that activity.
            erationalisation, (3) interpretability and communicabil-
            ity, and (4) usability in social and economic evaluations.       These criteria should not be regarded as absolute but
            The criteria are described in short below.                    more in the line of what accessibility studies should
                                                                          strive for. Applying the full set of criteria would imply a
            3.1.1. Theoretical basis                                      level of complexity and detail that can probably never be
               An accessibility measure should ideally take all           achieved in practice. However, it is important that the
            components and elements within these components into          implications of violating one or more of theoretical
            account (see Section 2). Thus, an accessibility measure       criteria should be recognised and described.
            should firstly be sensitive to changes in the transport
            system, i.e. the ease or disutility for an individual to      3.1.2. Operationalisation
            cover the distance between an origin and a destination           This is the ease with which the measure can be used in
            with a specific transport mode, including the amount of        practice, for example, in ascertaining availability of
            time, costs and effort. Secondly, an accessibility measure     data, models and techniques, and time and budget. This
            should be sensitive to changes in the land-use system, i.e.   criterion will usually be in conflict with one or more of
            the amount, quality and spatial distribution of supplied      the theoretical criteria described above.
            opportunities, and the spatial distribution of the de-
            mand for those opportunities, and the confrontation           3.1.3. Interpretability and communicability
            between demand and supply (competition effects).                  Researchers, planners and policy makers should be
            Accessibility measures which do not account for com-          able to understand and interpret the measure, otherwise
            petition effects may lead to inaccurate or even mislead-       it is not likely to be used in evaluation studies of land-
            ing results (Shen, 1998). Note that land-use changes not      use and/or transport developments or policies, and will
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...Journal of transport geography www elsevier com locate jtrangeo accessibility evaluation land use and strategies review research directions karst t geurs a bert van wee b netherlands environmental assessment agency national institute for public health the environment p o box bilthoven ba delft university technology abstract measures is presented assessing usability these in evaluations developments are reviewed using broad range relevant criteria including theoretical basis interpretability communicability data requirements impacts often evaluated which researchers policy makers can easily operationalise interpret such as travelling speed but generally do not satisfy more complex disaggregated however increase complexity eort calculations diculty interpretation current practice be much improved by operationalising advanced location based utility that still relatively easy to computed with state or models towards theoretically point inclusion individuals spatial temporal constraints fee...

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