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This paper deconstructs everyday mobility practices from a perspective of accessibility and social and transport (dis)advantage in two capital port cities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) – Freetown, Sierra Leone and Maputo, Mozambique. The paper proposes a novel framework that interprets social and transport (dis)advantage conditions as critical drivers of mobility behaviours and the resulting (in)accessibility that circumscribes individuals’ experience. Building on its framework, the paper raises unique empirical qualitative evidence from eight neighbourhoods about mobility practices across populations facing different degrees of social and transport (dis)advantage. The study’s design is grounded in the in-depth understanding of accessibility using qualitative methods as a counterpoint to predominant quantitative and spatial approaches, filling critical data gaps in cities in SSA. The findings reveal a deep-seated aspiration for car ownership, tempered by the urgency of other immediate material needs, as well as the dynamic nature of travel behaviour due to changing conditions during the day and throughout the year. The findings also indicate informality plays a significant role in enabling access to critical opportunities and the need to strengthen trust in popular transport systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transport matters for health and education outcomes, by ensuring physical access to crucial facilities. Using spatial modelling techniques and routable public transport service data, this study assesses the effectiveness of mostly semi fixed-route public transport systems in connecting people to advanced healthcare and education facilities in African cities. Uncovering significant pockets of ‘accessibility poverty’ – travel times above an acceptable level – it underscores the inequality in access within the cities, disproportionately affecting poor populations. Proximity of public transport to homes matters but has limited impact, due to how the routes, operated mainly by informal service providers, are allocated across the urban space and the low technical performance. The low ‘value added’ of public transport compared to walking helps explain the prevalence of foot travel. Tailored policy interventions – improving the public transport systems and, equally importantly, ensuring more equitable spatial distribution of advanced healthcare facilities – emerge as crucial strategies for addressing accessibility poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do people make decisions on where, when, and how to commute? And how did the pandemic crisis affect their commuting patterns? Based on exploratory interviews in Lima and family chronicles collected in Bogotá during 2020; and a second round of interviews in six low-income areas in the peripheries of these two cities during 2021, this article offers a panoramic view of the changes experienced in low-income neighbourhoods and their families during these recent years of pandemic. These changes bring to light the role of intra-household arrangements regarding mobility and accessibility. We suggest that mobility and accessibility can better be understood on a more systemic level (influenced by intra-household arrangements), as a collective phenomenon (based on the household’s resources and the household’s needs), and even as a collective decision-making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to overcome geographical distance is necessary to participate in social inclusion activities, such as employment. This paper seeks to describe the accessibility of job opportunities outside Uruguay’s capital city metropolitan area. This analysis entails empirically assessing intercity accessibility because workers in small cities frequently have to commute outside their cities of residence. This research reveals different regional accessibility profiles and allows us to identify vulnerable regions based on lack of accessibility to job opportunities. For the most vulnerable regions, travel by public transport would afford access to a number of job opportunities that, after considering the number of job seekers, would provide a level of employment well below the national rate. The findings suggest that policies to improve accessibility should not be homogeneous and must consider regional disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazilian cities are typically unequal and car dominated, where poorer communities mainly rely on public transport, walking and cycling. Yet, understanding the experience of using these modes within specific contexts remains limited. In this paper, we illustrate how the ‘New Mobilities Paradigm’ can contribute to the ‘Accessibility Turn’ in urban research. Focusing on the low-income ‘Cruzeiro-Tronco’ neighbourhood in Porto Alegre, Brazil, we incorporate considerations of equity and social inclusion by applying Jensen’s ‘Staging Mobilities’ framework to examine how mobility is ‘staged from above’ by institutions and ‘staged from below’ by residents. We used biographical interviews and mobile methods to provide in-depth accounts of the lived experience of walking and cycling, showing how residents navigate the spaces and negotiate their mobility strategies in places deemed accessible by conventional ‘objective’ metrics. By applying Jensen’s framework as part of a mixed-methods research approach, we provide a more informative and context-specific account of the accessibility landscape, constructing knowledge with participants about the meanings of accessibility to support more inclusive policies and designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobility-related social inequalities are receiving increasing attention from planning research and practice. Nevertheless, research seems to have a limited impact on urban policies addressing mobility. Using Santiago de Chile as a case study, the paper discusses the existing gaps between research on mobility-related equity concerns and existing policies and plans addressing urban mobility operating at national, metropolitan and municipal scales. An equity-based comparison is performed for different spatial planning instruments, exploring guiding concepts and deriving proposals through content analysis. The findings show that there is a comprehensive and multidisciplinary body of literature in Santiago on mobility and equity, approaching several dimensions of mobility, accessibility and social exclusion in relation to different population groups. However, the series of discourses, norms and actions (policies and programmes) operating at different planning scales lack coherence and address only some of the dimensions identified in the literature. Current plans and policies in Santiago have a limited scope and are difficult to modify, questioning their effectiveness for understanding and tackling mobility-related equity concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a case study of a kerb – the social stone – found at a tram traffic Island, the text demonstrates the re/production of the ableist city and analyses processes of transforming such a city into an accessible space for people with disabilities. The authors apply actor-network theory to analyse the mutual construction of space and bodies. To understand this construction, the concept of topology is used, which the article develops by introducing 'ableist' and 'accessible' topology. Unlike topography, which is in concord with able-bodied people, topology is more suitable for the analysis of space when also including non-standard bodies. Moreover, it allows the authors to analyse the mechanisms that reproduce and control the currently inaccessible city on the one hand, and it provide some room for change on the other. However, to make this change happen, a specific network must be established. To trace the associations that create such a network, the study uses in-depth interviews with involved actors collected over a ten-year period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residential land price is a critical component of housing prices and affordability, and existing studies of its influencing factors emphasize location and accessibility. This study analyzes the effects of neighborhood land use, especially employment and services, on residential land prices in Nanjing, a subcenter in the Yangtze River Delta region, China. We find that residential land prices are positively associated with producer services, as well as public and commercial services, and negatively associated with manufacturing. Further analysis reveals the spatial heterogeneity of the impact of manufacturing on residential land prices, which become positive in suburban regions. The effects of neighborhood land use on residential land prices are sensitive to the distance to the central business district. The geographically and temporally weighted regression model uncovers the temporal heterogeneity that the positive impacts of public and commercial services on residential land prices have been decreasing while the producer service is playing a more significant role. The results of this study contribute to the literature by shedding light on the impact of neighborhood land use on residential land prices based on spatial-temporal dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessibility is crucial to establishing and maintaining a nutritious and healthy diet. Although much of the literature on access to healthy food has focused on study areas in the Global North, the topic is of growing relevance to other regions across the globe. In Chile, where the prevalence of chronic diseases related to obesity and diet has increased, and over 50 percent of Chileans are considered overweight or obese, improving accessibility to healthy food has been an essential strategy for improving health outcomes, including the food environment. In this article, we analyze walking accessibility from homes and workplaces to open street markets and supermarkets that sell fresh fruits and vegetables and consider the role of price in the Concepción metropolitan area, the second most populated city in Chile. Results suggest that supermarkets and open street markets are distributed in a complementary way. Open street markets have a crucial role in facilitating access to more affordable products for peripheral and low-income areas. Findings also show workplaces increase accessibility in a way that is complementary to residential location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban green spaces (UGS) can counter the ill effects of urbanization in high-density cities. Studies related to these aspects are rare in Indian cities, however. This article aims to assess the availability and accessibility of UGS in Raipur, India. The objectives are to identify the status of UGS alteration, determine the status of available UGS, and identify the optimum population density for which UGS can be made available and accessible. Land use change detection, fragmentation index, availability index, UGS per capita, and neighborhood accessibility are used to assess aspects of UGS. The results show an increase in built-up area (24.32 percent) from 2010 to 2020. They also show a decrease in the UGS availability index and an increase in the fragmentation index from the city center to the outskirts. Uneven distribution of UGS categories is found all over the studied urban area. Low-density areas have more UGS per capita available than high-density areas, whereas medium-high-density areas have the maximum UGS accessibility. The study concludes with density-wise implications to maximize the UGS benefits and identifies medium-high density as the optimum density that allows high accessibility to the available UGS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many existing accessibility studies ignore human mobility due to the lack of large-scale human mobility data. This study investigates the impacts of human mobility on accessibility using massive mobile phone tracking data collected in Shenzhen, China. In this study, human mobility information is extracted from mobile phone tracking data using a time-geographic approach. The accessibility of each phone user is evaluated using fine spatial resolution across the entire city. The impacts of human mobility on accessibility are quantified by using relative accessibility ratios between phone users and a virtual stationary user in the same residential location. Results of this study enrich understandings of how land use influences relationships between human mobility and accessibility. For resource-poor regions with sparse service facilities, human mobility can greatly enhance individual accessibility. In contrast, for resource-rich regions with dense service facilities, human mobility can even reduce individual accessibility. Overall, human mobility can reduce spatial inequity of accessibility for people living in different regions of the city. The results of this study also have several important methodological implications for including human mobility and time dimension in accessibility evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article analyzes the impact of changing housing and neighborhood characteristics on the accessibility of neighborhood businesses using Long Beach, California, as a case study. Although advocates of smart growth and New Urbanism encourage land use mixing, aggregate-level analysis can be too coarse to pick up on fine-grained aspects of urban streetscapes. This study uses assessor parcel records and a point-based business establishment data set to analyze city-wide patterns of accessibility from individual dwelling units to thirty-one types of neighborhood businesses, including grocery stores, service shops, drug stores, doctor's offices, and banks. Regression results compare parcel-level and neighborhood-level drivers of accessibility between 2006 and 2015 to gauge the aggregated effect of recent economic, demographic, and built environment changes on this aspect of urban spatial structure. Larger homes in older, multiunit buildings and higher income neighborhoods show substantial increases in accessibility to most establishment types, suggesting a trend toward both greater accessibility and larger dwelling units—despite the traditional trade-off between access and space. Although gradual increases in home and business density increased overall accessibility over this period, weaker neighborhood-level results indicate that this trend is less pronounced in high-poverty and non-white areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on access to healthy foods often emphasizes the spatial proximity of residents to food stores like supermarkets as a way to gauge overall accessibility. Much of the literature has focused on locating the closest facility, assuming that access to one food store is sufficient. Given evidence that access to multiple healthy food stores can improve diets, however, this article examines how closest facility measures differ from cumulative opportunity accessibility measures across space in a medium-sized U.S. city. Differences in access between automobile and transit riders, using realistic travel time costs, are also considered. Results demonstrate that the two types of accessibility measures produce different accessibility geographies and that there are disparities in access for those dependent on transit. These findings indicate that researchers should carefully consider whether access to one supermarket opportunity is enough and pay special attention to the mode residents rely on to access food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to access places of opportunity is dependent on the land use distribution, the transportation network connecting homes and activity sites, and sociodemographic-dependent mobility. Accessibility indicators are used as a planning tool to capture accessibility variations in the assessment and development of social, land use, and transportation policy. A number of metrics have been proposed to understand patterns of unequal access that typically fall under overlapping three pairs of contrasting notions of accessibility: place- versus person-based, normative versus positive, and potential versus actual. Variations in accessibility for different people in different locations might arise from the dynamic nature of the people–space–transportation triad. What is less explored is how these dynamics, resulting from the confluence of changing urban structures, diverging mobility resources, and socioeconomic transformations, might reveal unusual accessibility experiences based on unexpected travel time and distance relations. Quite simply, longer (shorter) distances can be traversed in shorter (longer) travel times than would be expected given a specific people–space–transportation situation. Using this linear and nonlinear perspective on time–distance relations, we define a new pair of contrasting notions: monotonic versus nonmonotonic accessibility to investigate diverging commuting experiences. We demonstrate this idea by performing a place-based analysis of commuting data disaggregated by poverty status in the Denver metropolitan area. We find that (1) unexpected commuting experiences do exist and constitute a signification portion of commutes; (2) accessibility variations that are generally not anticipated by traditional place-based metrics; and (3) expected and inverted commuting experiences exist adjacent to each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the background of increased interest in subjectively experienced well-being in economics, psychology, and the social sciences, this article analyzes how such well-being is associated with geographical context, social contacts, and life circumstances. The empirical analysis of data collected in Hong Kong is used to elaborate and support two main claims. The first is that geography matters to not only overall well-being but also momentary well-being and that researchers should be careful to specify the influence of geographical context correctly. We therefore employ an approach that is informed by various strands of time–geographical thought and find that life satisfaction is associated more strongly with geographical context than is momentary well-being. Second, we confirm positive relations between social contacts and experienced well-being but extend earlier research by showing that these relations stretch across multiple timescales and depend to some extent on the duration of an activity episode and with whom the activity episode is undertaken. This means that the use of simple indicators of social capital is inadequate for making the complex linkages between well-being and people's social contacts understandable in empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many fundamental notions in geographic and social science research still tend to be conceptualized largely in static spatial terms, ignoring how our understanding of the issues we study can be greatly enriched through the lenses of time and human mobility. This article revisits three such notions: racial segregation, environmental exposure, and accessibility. It argues for the need to expand our analytical focus from static residential spaces to other relevant places and times in people's everyday lives. Mobility is an essential element of people's spatiotemporal experiences, and these complex experiences cannot be fully understood by just looking at where people live. As many social scientists are interested in studying segregation, environmental exposure, and accessibility, geographers can contribute to advancing temporally integrated analysis of these issues through careful examination of people's everyday experiences as their lives unfold in space and time. Interdisciplinary research along this line could have a broad impact on many disciplines beyond geography. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It has been said that national parks are “America's Best Idea,” they are among the most famous and instantly recognizable places in the country, and they attract visitors from all over the world. Yet visitors to these sites are overwhelmingly white. A number of theoretical perspectives have been proposed for the absence of minority visitors, including socioeconomic marginality, differing cultural norms, and the lingering legacy of discrimination, but geography is not one of the usual explanations. Given the strong associations between particular regions of the country and the locations of parks, as well as the uneven spatial distribution of population, the absence of geography as an explanation is striking. We examine this issue with the expectation that geography is an important part of the explanation for low minority visitation rates. Put simply, do potential minority visitors live anywhere near national park units? Are they more likely to visit the ones to which they live nearest? This study uses the geographic concept of accessibility to examine the spatial relationships between national parks and potential minority visitors. Accessibility was measured using driving times between each of 285 parks and county populations, with the results compared to a visitation database compiled for fifty-one park units. There is clearly a relationship between park visitation and the location of minority populations, in the sense that racial or ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented at closer and smaller national parks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The World Health Organization has urged governments worldwide to implement evidence-based treatment services for drug addiction and mental health disorders, but the role of geographic characteristics in influencing treatment continuity for this population has been largely understudied. Here, we employ logistic regression (N = 294) to investigate how accessibility and neighborhood socioeconomic context influenced treatment continuity for a sample of 294 drug-dependent patients who received acute inpatient psychiatric treatment at a large, inner-city hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and who were then referred to outpatient care. Results indicate that longer travel time to treatment, a high crime rate in the patient's home neighborhood, and traveling from a relatively lower to a higher crime neighborhood for treatment suppress treatment continuity. These contextual influences are moderated by ethnicity, where whites are influenced more strongly by travel time to treatment. This likely reflects the locations of treatment programs relative to patterns of residential segregation. African Americans both reside and attend treatment within the very highest crime areas, and this appears to have a particularly negative impact on treatment continuity for African Americans. This research highlights the need for more careful consideration of geographic issues in psychiatric treatment planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many geographic studies use distance as a simple measure of accessibility, risk, or disparity. Straight-line (Euclidean) distance is most often used because of the ease of its calculation. Actual travel distance over a road network is a superior alternative, although historically an expensive and labor-intensive undertaking. This is no longer true, as travel distance and travel time can be calculated directly from commercial Web sites, without the need to own or purchase specialized geographic information system software or street files. Taking advantage of this feature, we compare straight-line and travel distance and travel time to community hospitals from a representative sample of more than 66,000 locations in the fifty states of the United States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The measures are very highly correlated (r 2 > 0.9), but important local exceptions can be found near shorelines and other physical barriers. We conclude that for nonemergency travel to hospitals, the added precision offered by the substitution of travel distance, travel time, or both for straight-line distance is largely inconsequential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses accessibility as an analytical tool to examine health care access among immigrants in a multicultural urban setting. It applies and improves on two widely used accessibility models-the gravity model and the two-step floating catchment area model-in measuring spatial accessibility by Mainland Chinese immigrants in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area. Empirical data on physician-seeking behaviors are collected through two rounds of questionnaire surveys. Attention is focused on journey to physician location and utilization of linguistically matched family physicians. Based on the survey data, a two-zone accessibility model is developed by relaxing the travel threshold and distance impedance parameters that are traditionally treated as a constant in the accessibility models. General linear models are used to identify relationships among spatial accessibility, geography, and socioeconomic characteristics of Mainland Chinese immigrants. The results suggest a spatial mismatch in the supply of and demand for culturally sensitive care, and residential location is the primary factor that determines spatial accessibility to family physicians. The article yields important policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gambardella A., Mariani M. and Torrisi S. How 'provincial' is your region? Openness and regional performance in Europe, Regional Studies. By employing 1995-2000 data on European regions, an index of regional openness is constructed based on the share of hotels in the population and the share of the population that speaks a second language. This index has an impact on regional performance after controlling for technological capabilities, agglomeration economies, and other factors. Apart from a direct effect of openness, an indirect effect was found coming through patents. This suggests that open regions tap into wider knowledge networks that then affect performance. From a policy perspective, making a region less 'provincial' can be as important as investments in local infrastructures and networks. [image omitted] Gambardella A., Mariani M. und Torrisi S. Wie 'provinziell' ist Ihre Region? Offenheit und regionale Leistung in Europa, Regional Studies. Unter Nutzung von Daten uber europaische Regionen im Zeitraum von 1995 bis 2000 konstruieren wir einen Index der regionalen Offenheit anhand des Anteils von Hotels an der Bevolkerung sowie des Anteils der Bevolkerung mit Fremdsprachenkenntnissen. Dieser Index wirkt sich auf die regionale Leistung aus, wenn man auf technologische Fahigkeiten, Agglomerationswirtschaften und weitere Faktoren kontrolliert. Abgesehen von einer direkten Auswirkung der Offenheit stellen wir eine indirekte Auswirkung durch Patente fest. Dies weist darauf hin, dass sich offene Regionen breitere Wissensnetzwerke zunutze machen, welche sich ihrerseits auf die Leistung auswirken. Von der politischen Warte aus betrachtet kann es genauso wichtig sein, eine Region weniger 'provinziell' zu machen, wie es wichtig ist, in lokale Infrastrukturen und Netzwerke zu investieren. Ouverture Performance regionale Avantages regionaux Technologies Regions europeennes Gambardella A., Mariani M. y Torrisi S. ¿Como es de 'provincial' tu region? Accesibilidad y desempeno regional en Europa, Regional Studies. Empleando datos de 1995-2000 sobre las regiones europeas, construimos un indice de accesibilidad regional basado en la proporcion de hoteles en la poblacion y la proporcion de la poblacion que habla una segunda lengua. Este indice tiene un efecto en el desempeno regional si se controlan las capacidades tecnologicas, las economias de aglomeracion y otros factores. Aparte de un efecto directo de accesibilidad, observamos un efecto indirecto que procede de las patentes. Esto sugiere que las regiones abiertas aprovechan redes mas amplias de conocimiento que luego afectan al desempeno. Desde una perspectiva politica, puede ser tan importante conseguir que una region sea menos 'provincial' como invertir en infraestructuras y redes locales. Gambardella A., Mariani M. et Torrisi S. Dans quelle mesure votre region est-elle provinciale? Ouverture et performance regionale en Europe, Regional Studies. Nous appuyant sur des donnees sur les regions europeennes pour la periode 1995-2000, nous etablissons un indice d'ouverture regionale base sur la proportion d'hotels par rapport a la population et sur la proportion de la population qui parle une deuxieme langue. Cet indice a un impact sur les performances regionales d'apres le controle des capacites technologiques, des economies d'agglomeration et d'autres facteurs. Outre un effet d'ouverture direct, nous observons un effet indirect cause par les brevets. Cela laisse a penser que les regions ouvertes puisent dans des reseaux de connaissances beaucoup plus larges, ce qui entraine un effet sur les performances. Dans une perspective politique, il peut etre aussi important de rendre une region moins provinciale que d'investir dans des infrastructures et des reseaux locaux. Offenheit Regionale Leistung Regionale Vorteile Technologie Europaische Regionen Accesibilidad Desempeno regional Ventajas regionales Tecnologia Regiones europeas [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Massard N. and Mehier C. Proximity and innovation through an 'accessibility to knowledge' lens, Regional Studies. The aim of this paper is to improve understanding of the spatial diffusion process of knowledge in terms of accessibility, and also to elaborate a new measurement and evaluation tools adapted to a concrete estimation of these phenomena. This approach offers ways of giving an operational content to the concept of proximity. The 'potential functions' used to measure geographical accessibility is enriched with the integration of the characteristics of knowledge diffusion, namely sources of externalities/knowledge, ways of transmission... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]