An analysis of day-to-day variations in individual space–time accessibility

Abstract

Traditional studies about the planning and equality of public service delivery have treated accessibility of services as if it were a static concept of physical proximity. This paper extends and empirically substantiates the conceptual argument for the incorporation of time in measures of accessibility. It does so by examining the variability in person-based accessibility to urban opportunities over a one-week period. Accessibility is specified on the basis of persons rather than places and measured for each day of the week rather than for a single day. An empirical case of government offices in the city of Ghent (Belgium) is used to demonstrate how spacetime accessibility may fluctuate between persons and per person from day to day.The case study provides evidence that, even for fulltime workers on weekdays, considerable day-to-day variability in the accessibility level of a single person can exist as a consequence of differences in space-time constraints.

Future accessibility impacts of transport policy scenarios: equity and sensitivity to travel time thresholds for Bus Rapid Transit expansion in Rio de Janeiro

“…Previous studies have demonstrated how the selection of this starting time influences accessibility estimates because of the variation in service levels across the day (Fan et al, 2012;Farber et al, 2014) and in different days of the week (Neutens et al, 2012). Although these studies do not explicitly articulate the MTUP, they demonstrate how the segmentation choice can have important equity effects.…”

Characterizing activity sequences using profile Hidden Markov Models

“…Under the models derived from the mobile phone data, individuals' travel behavior can be analyzed from a longitudinal perspective. Intra-personal travel behavior has been studied based on various measures, such as the spatial extent of daily movement (Järv, Ahas, & Witlox, 2014) and the accessibility (Neutens, Delafontaine, Scott, & De Maeyer, 2012). However, the existing methods do not consider the sequential information which is imbedded in activity-travel patterns.…”

The accessibility assessment and the regional range of transit-oriented development: An application of schedule accessibility measures in the Nord Pas-de-Calais region

“…Besides, the location-based approaches are often preferred to others because they can be easily interpreted by stakeholders. In parallel, the person-based and utility-based indicators remain rare because they require significant data input and appropriate modeling tools (Benenson, Martens, Rofé, & Kwartler, 2010;Neutens, Delafontaine, Scott, & Demaeyer 2012). In addition to that, the conventional place-based accessibility measures encounter two major weaknesses with respect to public transport: a.…”