Impact of Transport Development on the Accessibility of Selected Functional Elements: The Case of the Suburban Zielonki Municipality within the Krakow Metropolitan Area

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to present the findings of an investigation of areas of concentration of selected functions within the Zielonki suburban community—namely, their mutual relations and accessibility. The investigation of interdependence between transport system development within a municipality and transformation processes observed to take place in its territory can allow one to determine the precepts of its future development. The investigation covered Zielonki—a suburban community near Krakow—as a distinctive case of contemporary transformations of the functio-spatial structure of a suburban zone that remains under the influence of the developmental processes of a large urban center in Poland. The ongoing urbanization of suburban areas indicates their constant investment attractiveness. However, the development of transport infrastructure does not seem to keep pace with the ongoing process of change, especially in the areas of new housing and service concentration zones. The observed phenomena negatively impact the emergence of a sustainable suburban space, and the increase in vehicular traffic lowers the quality of life within this area.