Journal of Transport and Land Use

Towards a general theory of access

David M Levinson

University of Sydney, School of Civil Engineering

http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4563-2963

Hao Wu

University of Sydney, School of Civil Engineering

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5198/jtlu.2020.1660

Keywords: Accessibility, Transport, Land Use

---

Abstract

This paper integrates and extends many of the concepts of accessibility deriving from Hansen’s (1959) seminal paper, and develops a theory of access that generalizes from the particular measures of access that have become increasingly common. Access is now measured for a particular place by a particular mode for a particular purpose at a particular time in a particular year. General access is derived as a theoretical ideal that would be measured for all places, all modes, all purposes, at all times, over the lifecycle of a project. It is posited that more general access measures better explain spatial location phenomena.

---

References

References

Abou-Zeid, M., R. Witter, M. Bierlaire, V. Kaufmann, and M. Ben-Akiva (2012). Happiness and travel mode switching: findings from a Swiss public transportation experiment. Transport Policy 19(1), 93–104.

Antunes, A., A. Seco, and N. Pinto (2003). An accessibility–maximization approach to road network planning. Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering 18(3), 224–240.

Bar-Yosef, A., K. Martens, and I. Benenson (2013). A model of the vicious cycle of a bus line. Transportation Research Part B: Methodological 54, 37– 50.

Batty, M. (2009). Accessibility: in search of a unified theory.

Beesley, M. E. (1965). The value of time spent in travelling: some new evidence. Economica 32(126), 174–185.

Ben-Akiva, M. and M. Bierlaire (1999). Discrete choice methods and their applications to short term travel decisions. In Handbook of transportation science, pp. 5–33. Springer.

Benenson, I., K. Martens, Y. Rofé, and A. Kwartler (2011). Public transport versus private car GIS-based estimation of accessibility applied to the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. The Annals of Regional Science 47(3), 499–515.

Bentlage, M., S. Lüthi, and A. Thierstein (2013). Knowledge creation in german agglomerations and accessibility–an approach involving non- physical connectivity. Cities 30, 47–58.

Bocarejo, J. P. and D. R. Oviedo (2012). Transport accessibility and social inequities: a tool for identification of mobility needs and evaluation of transport investments. Journal of Transport Geography 24, 142–154.

Boisjoly, G. and A. El-Geneidy (2016). Daily fluctuations in transit and job availability: A comparative assessment of time-sensitive accessibility measures. Journal of transport geography 52, 73–81.

Breheny, M. J. (1978). The measurement of spatial opportunity in strategic planning. Regional Studies 12(4), 463–479.

Bruinsma, F. and P. Rietveld (1998). The accessibility of European cities: theoretical framework and comparison of approaches. Environment and Planning A 30(3), 499–521.

Carrion, C. and D. M. Levinson (2019). Over-and under-estimation of travel time on commute trips: Gps vs. self-reporting. Urban Science 3(3), 70.

Cascetta, E. (2009). Transportation systems analysis: models and applications, Volume 29. Springer Science & Business Media.

Cascetta, E., A. Cartenì, and M. Montanino (2016). A behavioral model of accessibility based on the number of available opportunities. Journal of Transport Geography 51, 45–58.

Cervero, R. (2001). Efficient urbanisation: economic performance and the shape of the metropolis. Urban Studies 38(10), 1651–1671.

Chaloux, N., G. Boisjoly, E. Grisé, A. El-Geneidy, and D. M. Levinson (2019). I only get some satisfaction: Introducing satisfaction into mea- sures of accessibility. Transportation research part F: traffic psychology and behaviour 62, 833–843.

Chang, J. S. and J.-H. Lee (2008). Accessibility analysis of korean high- speed rail: A case study of the Seoul metropolitan area. Transport reviews 28(1), 87–103.

Chen, S., Y. Fan, Y. Cao, and A. Khattak (2019). Assessing the relative importance of factors influencing travel happiness. Travel Behaviour and Society 16, 185–191.

Cui, M. and D. M. Levinson (2018). Full cost analysis of accessibility. Journal of Transport and Land Use.

Cui, M. and D. M. Levinson (2019a). Measuring full cost accessibility by auto. Journal of Transport and Land Use 12(1), 649–672.

Cui, M. and D. M. Levinson (2019b). Primal and dual access. Geographical Analysis.

Deng, T. (2013). Impacts of transport infrastructure on productivity and economic growth: Recent advances and research challenges. Transport Reviews 33(6), 686–699.

Douglas, P. C. and C. W. Cobb (1928). A theory of production. The American Economic Review 18(1), 139–165.

El-Geneidy, A. and D. M. Levinson (2006). Access to destinations: Development of accessibility measures. Technical Report Mn/DOT 2006-16, University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies.

El-Geneidy, A. and D. M. Levinson (2007). Mapping accessibility over time. Journal of Maps 3(1), 76–87.

El-Geneidy, A., D. M. Levinson, E. Diab, G. Boisjoly, D. Verbich, and C. Loong (2016). The cost of equity: Assessing transit accessibility and social disparity using total travel cost. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 91, 302–316.

Fan, Y., A. Guthrie, and D. M. Levinson (2016). Waiting time perceptions at transit stops and stations: Effects of basic amenities, gender, and security. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 88, 251–264.

Farber, S. and L. Fu (2017). Dynamic public transit accessibility using travel time cubes: Comparing the effects of infrastructure (dis) investments over time. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 62, 30–40.

Farber, S., M. Z. Morang, and M. J. Widener (2014). Temporal variability in transit-based accessibility to supermarkets. Applied Geography 53, 149– 159.

Ford, A. C., S. L. Barr, R. J. Dawson, and P. James (2015). Transport ac- cessibility analysis using gis: Assessing sustainable transport in london. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 4(1), 124–149.

Geurs, K. T., J. R. van Eck, et al. (2003). Evaluation of accessibility impacts of land-use scenarios: the implications of job competition, land-use, and infrastructure developments for the Netherlands. Environment and Planning B 30(1), 69–88.

Geurs, K. T. and B. Van Wee (2004). Accessibility evaluation of land-use and transport strategies: review and research directions. Journal of Transport geography 12(2), 127–140.

Giuliano, G., P. Gordon, Q. Pan, and J. Park (2010). Accessibility and resi- dential land values: some tests with new measures. Urban Studies 47(14), 3103–3130.

Goodwin, P. (1974). Generalised time and the problem of equity in trans- port studies. Transportation 3(1), 1–23.

Goodwin, P. (1981). The usefulness of travel budgets. Transportation Research Part A: General 15(1), 97–106.

Greater Sydney Commission (2018). A Metropolis of Three Cities. Greater Sydney Commission.

Grengs, J. (2015). Nonwork accessibility as a social equity indicator. International Journal of Sustainable Transportation 9(1), 1–14.

Hansen, W. G. (1959). How accessibility shapes land use. Journal of the American Institute of Planners 25(2), 73–76.

Hayes, M. C. and A. G. Wilson (1971). Spatial interaction. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences 5(1), 73–95.

Hensher, D. (2019). Using the average wage rate to assess the merit of value of travel time savings: A concern and clarification. Transport Findings.

Holl, A. (2007). Twenty years of accessibility improvements. the case of the spanish motorway building programme. Journal of Transport Geography 15(4), 286–297.

Hou, Y., V. Garikapati, S. E. Young, A. Nag, and T. Grushka (2019). The mobility energy productivity (mep) metric. Technical report, National Renewable Energy Lab.(NREL), Golden, CO (United States).

Huang, J., D. M. Levinson, J. Wang, J. Zhou, and Z.-j. Wang (2018). Track- ing job and housing dynamics with smartcard data. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115(50), 12710–12715.

Iacono, M., K. Krizek, and A. El-Geneidy (2008a). How close is close enough? estimating accurate distance decay functions by purpose and modes.

Iacono, M., K. Krizek, and A. M. El-Geneidy (2008b). Access to destinations: How close is close enough? estimating accurate distance decay functions for multiple modes and different purposes.

Iacono, M., K. J. Krizek, and A. El-Geneidy (2010). Measuring non-motorized accessibility: issues, alternatives, and execution. Journal of Transport Geography 18, 133–140.

Iacono, M. and D. M. Levinson (2017). Accessibility dynamics and location premia: Do land values follow accessibility changes? Urban Stud- ies 54(2), 364–381.

Ihlanfeldt, K. R. and D. L. Sjoquist (1990). Job accessibility and racial differences in youth employment rates. The American economic review 80(1), 267–276.

Ingram, D. R. (1971). The concept of accessibility: A search for an operational form. Regional Studies 5(2), 101–107.

Jacobs, J. (1961). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Vintage.

Jones, P. and E. Peppiatt (1996). Managing perceptions of waiting times in service queues. International Journal of Service Industry Management 7(5), 47–61.

Knox, P. L. (1978). The intraurban ecology of primary medical care: patterns of accessibility and their policy implications. Environment and Planning A 10(4), 415–435.

Kockelman, K. M. (1997). Travel behavior as function of accessibility, land use mixing, and land use balance: evidence from san francisco bay area. Transportation research record 1607(1), 116–125.

Kwan, M.-P. (1998). Space-time and integral measures of individual accessibility: a comparative analysis using a point-based framework. Geo- graphical analysis 30(3), 191–216.

Lagune-Reutler, M., A. Guthrie, Y. Fan, and D. M. Levinson (2016). Transit stop environments and waiting time perception: Impacts of trees, traffic exposure, and polluted air. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board (2543), 82–90.

Lam, T. C. and K. A. Small (2001). The value of time and reliability: mea- surement from a value pricing experiment. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 37(2-3), 231–251.

Larson, R., B. Larson, and K. Katz (1991). Prescription for waiting– in line blues: Entertain, enlighten and engage. Sloan Management review,(winter) 32(2), 44–55.

Lee, S., C. Yi, and S.-P. Hong (2013). Urban structural hierarchy and the relationship between the ridership of the Seoul metropolitan subway and the land-use pattern of the station areas. Cities 35, 69–77.

Lei, T. L. and R. L. Church (2010). Mapping transit-based access: inte- grating gis, routes and schedules. International Journal of Geographical Information Science 24(2), 283–304.

Levinson, D. and S. Kanchi (2002). Road capacity and the allocation of time. Journal of Transportation and Statistics 5(1).

Levinson, D. and A. Kumar (1994). The rational locator: why travel times have remained stable. Journal of the american planning association 60(3), 319–332.

Levinson, D. M. (1998). Accessibility and the journey to work. Journal of Transport Geography 6(1), 11–21.

Levinson, D. M. (2007). Density and dispersion: the co-development of land use and rail in London. Journal of Economic Geography 8(1), 55–77.

Levinson, D. M., D. Giacomin, and A. Badsey-Ellis (2015). Accessibility and the choice of network investments in the london underground. Jour- nal of Transport and Land Use 9(1).

Levinson, D. M. and K. J. Krizek (2018). Metropolitan Transport and Land Use: Planning for Place and Plexus. Routledge.

Levinson, D. M. and A. Kumar (1995). A multi-modal trip distribution model. Transportation Research Record (1466), 124–131.

Marchetti, C. (1994). Anthropological invariants in travel behavior. Technological forecasting and social change 47(1), 75–88.

Martens, K. (2016). Transport justice: Designing fair transportation systems. Routledge.

Melo, P. C., D. J. Graham, D. M. Levinson, and S. Aarabi (2017). Agglom- eration, accessibility and productivity: Evidence for large metropolitan areas in the us. Urban Studies 54(1), 179–195.

Merlin, L. A. (2017). A portrait of accessibility change for four US metropolitan areas. Journal of Transport and Land Use 10, 309–336.

Miller, E. J. (2018). Accessibility: measurement and application in transportation planning. Transport Reviews 38(5), 551–555.

Miller, H. J. (1991). Modelling accessibility using space-time prism concepts within geographical information systems. International Journal of Geographical Information System 5(3), 287–301.

Mohring, H. (1972). Optimization and scale economies in urban bus trans- portation. The American Economic Review 62(4), 591–604.

Mokhtarian, P. L. and C. Chen (2004). TTB or not TTB, that is the question: a review and analysis of the empirical literature on travel time (and money) budgets. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 38(9), 643–675.

Moniruzzaman, M. and A. Páez (2012). Accessibility to transit, by tran- sit, and mode share: application of a logistic model with spatial filters. Journal of Transport Geography 24, 198–205.

Moya-Gómez, B. and J. C. García-Palomares (2015). Working with the daily variation in infrastructure performance on territorial accessibil- ity. the cases of madrid and barcelona. European Transport Research Review 7(2), 20.

Murphy, B. and A. Owen (2019). Implementing low-stress bicycle rout- ing in national accessibility evaluation. Transportation Research Record, 0361198119837179.

National Academy of Sciences (1999). Science and creationism: A view from the national academy of sciences, second edition.

Neutens, T. (2015). Accessibility, equity and health care: review and re- search directions for transport geographers. Journal of Transport Geography 43, 14–27.

Niemeier, D. A. (1997). Accessibility: an evaluation using consumer wel- fare. Transportation 24(4), 377–396.

O’Kelly, M. E. and M. W. Horner (2003). Aggregate accessibility to population at the county level: US 1940–2000. Journal of Geographical Systems 5(1), 5–23.

O’Regan, K. and J. M. Quigley (1999). Accessibility and economic opportunity. In Essays in Transportation Economics and Policy: A Handbook in Honor of John R. Meyer. The Brookings Institution.

Osland, L. and I. Thorsen (2008). Effects on housing prices of urban attrac- tion and labor-market accessibility. Environment and Planning A 40(10), 2490–2509.

O’Sullivan, D., A. Morrison, and J. Shearer (2000). Using desktop GIS for the investigation of accessibility by public transport: an isochrone approach. International Journal of Geographical Information Science 14(1), 85– 104.

Owen, A. and H. Jiang (2015). Temporal sampling intervals and service frequency harmonics in transit accessibility evaluation. Technical report, University of Minnesota Accessibility Observatory.

Owen, A. and D. M. Levinson (2014). Access across America: Transit 2014. Technical report, Accessibility Observatory, University of Minnesota.

Owen, A. and D. M. Levinson (2015). Modeling the commute mode share of transit using continuous accessibility to jobs. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 74, 110–122.

Owen, A., D. M. Levinson, and B. Murphy (2014). Access across America: Walking 2014. Technical report, Accessibility Observatory, University of Minnesota.

Owen, A., B. Murphy, and D. M. Levinson (2018). Access Across America: Auto 2016.

Palmateer, C. (2018). The Distribution of Access: Evaluating Justice in Transport. Ph.D. thesis, University of Minnesota.

Papa, E. and P. Coppola (2012). Gravity-based accessibility measures for integrated transport-land use planning (grabam). Accessibility Instruments for Planning Practice, 117–124.

Parthasarathi, P., D. M. Levinson, and H. Hochmair (2013). Network struc- ture and travel time perception. PloS one 8(10), e77718.

Redmond, L. S. and P. L. Mokhtarian (2001). The positive utility of the commute: modeling ideal commute time and relative desired commute amount. Transportation 28(2), 179–205.

Richardson, A. J. and W. Young (1982). A measure of linked-trip accessibility. Transportation Planning and Technology 7(2), 73–82.

Sarlas, G. and K. W. Axhausen (2018). Commuting distance and individual accessibility.

Shen, Q. (1998). Location characteristics of inner-city neighborhoods and employment accessibility of low-wage workers. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 25(3), 345–365.

Shen, Y., J. de Abreu e Silva, and L. M. Martínez (2014). Assessing high- speed rail’s impacts on land cover change in large urban areas based on spatial mixed logit methods: a case study of madrid atocha railway station from 1990 to 2006. Journal of Transport Geography 41, 184–196.

Shin, K., S. Washington, and K. Choi (2007). Effects of transportation accessibility on residential property values: application of spatial hedonic price model in seoul, south korea, metropolitan area. Transportation Re- search Record 1994(1), 66–73.

Song, Y., H. J. Miller, J. Stempihar, and X. Zhou (2017). Green accessibility: Estimating the environmental costs of network-time prisms for sustain- able transportation planning. Journal of Transport Geography 64, 109–119.

Spence, N. and B. Linneker (1994). Evolution of the motorway network and changing levels of accessibility in great britain. Journal of Transport Geography 2(4), 247–264.

Srour, I. M., K. M. Kockelman, and T. P. Dunn (2002). Accessibility indices: Connection to residential land prices and location choices. Transportation Research Record 1805(1), 25–34.

Stouffer, S. A. (1960). Intervening opportunities and competing migrants. Journal of Regional Science 2(1), 1–26.

Stutzer, A. and B. S. Frey (2008). Stress that doesn’t pay: The commuting paradox. Scandinavian Journal of Economics 110(2), 339–366.

Tahmasbi, B. and H. Haghshenas (2019). Public transport accessibility measure based on weighted door to door travel time. Computers, En- vironment and Urban Systems 76, 163–177.

Tahmasbi, B., M. H. Mansourianfar, H. Haghshenas, and I. Kim (2019). Multimodal accessibility-based equity assessment of urban public facil- ities distribution. Sustainable Cities and Society, 101633.

Tang, J., Y. Song, H. J. Miller, and X. Zhou (2016). Estimating the most likely space–time paths, dwell times and path uncertainties from vehicle trajectory data: A time geographic method. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies 66, 176–194.

Tang, W. and D. M. Levinson (2018). Deviation between actual and short- est travel time paths for commuters. Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems 144(8), 04018042.

Tanner, J. C. (1981). Expenditure of time and money on travel. Transporta- tion Research Part A: General 15(1), 25–38.

Underhill, P. (2004). Call of the Mall: The Author of Why We Buy on the Geography of Shopping. Simon and Schuster.

Underhill, P. (2009). Why we buy: The science of shopping–updated and revised for the Internet, the global consumer, and beyond. Simon and Schuster.

van Lierop, D. and A. El-Geneidy (2018). Is having a positive image of public transit associated with travel satisfaction and continued transit usage? an exploratory study of bus transit. Public Transport 10(2), 241– 256.

Van Wee, B., M. Hagoort, and J. A. Annema (2001). Accessibility measures with competition. Journal of Transport geography 9(3), 199–208.

Vandersmissen, M.-H., P. Villeneuve, and M. Thériault (2003). Analyzing changes in urban form and commuting time. The professional geogra- pher 55(4), 446–463.

Vermeiren, K., A. Van Rompaey, M. Loopmans, E. Serwajja, and P. Muk- waya (2012). Urban growth of Kampala, Uganda: Pattern analysis and scenario development. Landscape and urban planning 106(2), 199–206.

Wachs, M. and T. G. Kumagai (1973). Physical accessibility as a social indicator. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences 7(5), 437–456.

Wang, F. (2000). Modeling commuting patterns in Chicago in a GIS environment: A job accessibility perspective. The Professional Geographer 52(1), 120–133.

Watkins, K. E., B. Ferris, A. Borning, G. S. Rutherford, and D. Layton (2011). Where is my bus? impact of mobile real-time information on the perceived and actual wait time of transit riders. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 45(8), 839–848.

West, G. B. (2017). Scale: the universal laws of growth, innovation, sustain- ability, and the pace of life in organisms, cities, economies, and companies. Penguin.

Wu, H. and D. M. Levinson (2020a). Commute mode share and access to jobs across us metropolitan areas. working paper.

Wu, H. and D. M. Levinson (2020b). Transit access, ridership, and density. working paper.

Wu, X., D. M. Levinson, and H. Liu (2009). Perception of waiting time at signalized intersections. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board (2135), 52–59.

Xi, Y., E. J. Miller, and S. Saxe (2018). Exploring the impact of different cut-off times on isochrone measurements of accessibility. Transportation Research Record 2672(49), 113–124.

Yeganeh, A. J., R. P. Hall, A. R. Pearce, and S. Hankey (2018). A social equity analysis of the us public transportation system based on job accessibility. Journal of Transport and Land Use 11(1), 1039–1056.

Zahavi, Y. (1974). Travel time budgets and mobility in urban areas. Technical report.

Zhu, S. and D. M. Levinson (2015). Do people use the shortest path? An empirical test of wardrop’s first principle. PloS One 10(8), e0134322.