A11 (NRP 41) - Measuring accessibility
Overview
Background & policy context:
The National Research Programme (NRP) 41 was launched by the Federal Council at the end of 1995 to improve the scientific basis on which Switzerland's traffic problems might be solved, taking into account the growing interconnection with Europe, ecological limits, and economic and social needs. The NRP 41 aimed to become a think-tank for sustainable transport policy. Each one of the 54 projects belongs to one of the following six modules:
- A Mobility: Socio-institutional Aspects
- B Mobility: Socio-economical Aspects
- C Environment: Tools and Models for Impact Assessments
- D Political and Economic Strategies and Prerequisites
- E Traffic Management: Potentials and Impacts
- F Technologies: Potentials and Impacts
- M Materials
- S Synthesis Projects
Objectives:
Better access to various locations and services is, in many cases, an objective of transport policies. However, it is not easy to find simple, meaningful measurement units for accessibility: firstly, one must gain an understanding of how the various aspects of accessibility (such as required time, price, quality of connections) are weighted by the travelling public. The study wants to provide a broad overview of various accessibility concepts and mobility requirements. The study aims to build methods and indicators allowing a better measurement of the accessibility of the population to various locations and activities (such to work, leisure, etc.) by taking into account the location (in the centre town, in suburbs, in the countryside) and the socio-economic characteristics (age, income, activity). The long-term aim of this study is a sustainable transport policy, reconciling the request for mobility - present and future - with the requirements of economic efficiency, social justice and environmental protection. This objective is part of the new strategy of the Swiss Ministry of Transport (DETEC).
Methodology:
The research was carried out in four stages:
In the first stage, we posed the methodological bases of the measurement of the access and look further into the theoretical aspects related to these questionings;
In the second stage, we validated our step with the design and the realisation of an investigation near the households of the canton of Vaud. The initial intention was the realisation of a national investigation relating the access to three various opportunities (work/training, shopping, leisure). Because of the high costs to carry out the investigation, the scale had to be adapted to the financial availability. Further the agreement of the programme's management, the investigation was carried out on 540 households of the canton of Vaud and explored the requests of access to the leisure and places of work. This investigation leads us to better know the sensitivities of the users towards access and to collect the data necessary to the realisation of the indicators of access;
The third stage consisted of the construction and the experimentation of the pilot indicators of access, potentially usable in the implementation of local, regional or national policies of transport;
Lastly, in the fourth stage, various aspects relating to the modal choice criteria were analysed through a qualitative investigation probing the stated preferences towards access on a sub sample of households resulting from the first investigation.
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