Accessibility Indices: Pilot Study and Potential Use in Strategic Planning

Abstract

Accessibility indices (AIs) for public and private transport were estimated in a pilot study in northeast Hampshire, England. The AIs were based on a formulation relating travel time and cost between specified origins and destinations (O-Ds). Wider use of the role of the indices was examined, particularly for reducing car dependency as one element in improving sustainability within the North East Hampshire Transport Strategy. The indices, which can be presented in simplified graphical fashion to inform nontechnical audiences, are based on door-to-door travel times and costs, and the O-Ds represent trips between home and important destinations. Significantly, the only example in which travel-cost AIs for bus versus car travel were approximately equal was that in which a substantial car-parking charge was made. The AIs thus help to indicate the transport corridors where actions to improve equity in transport opportunities for users have the greatest priority and potential. These actions, such as improved bus priority and varying fare levels, parking charges, and other user charges, can be verified by prescriptive use of the AIs to illustrate the impacts. This approach provides a basis for using the AIs to quickly examine future transport scenarios and in associated decision making. It also helps in focusing on detailed modal shift analysis aimed at reshaping the transport system in a sustainable manner. This process is described within the context of strategic transport planning at county and regional levels, and continuing work on the theory and applications of the AIs is outlined.