Measuring Cross-Border Road Accessibility in the European Union

Abstract

Border regions are in the forefront of geographical cohesion of the European Union but often lag behind more central areas on development and connectivity. As transport infrastructure—or rather the lack of it—plays a primary role in this, specific policy measures to improve the quality of road connections and address the overall issues of geographic isolation are often necessary. The methodology presented here provides a set of indicators and tools that allow policy makers to measure accessibility and connectivity of border regions, identify areas where transport infrastructure may be lacking, and prioritize potential investments based on specific policy-relevant criteria. The approach uses very detailed spatially disaggregate data covering EU28 plus Norway and Switzerland at grid level (1 km by 1 km), as well as the complete road network. This level of resolution allows many of the specificities of the areas covered to be taken into account.