Balancing time: Using a new accessibility measure in Rio de Janeiro

One of the most common applications of accessibility is in evaluating inequality in access to jobs. A vital factor to be incorporated by accessibility indicators when analyzing job accessibility is the competition for job positions by job seekers; otherwise, the results may be inaccurate or misleading. Despite efforts by researchers to develop accessibility measures that capture job competition, they fail to ensure that these measures are practical and easily interpretable and communicable, which in turn makes planners and policymakers continue to opt for more straightforward measures. In this paper we aim to fill this gap by providing a simple accessibility measure that accounts for competition effects, while remaining practical, intuitive, and highly communicable. The proposed indicator – Balancing Time – is applied to assess the inequality in job accessibility in 160 neighborhoods within the city of Rio de Janeiro, and the results are compared with the most popular indicator used in practice, the cumulative opportunities. The findings suggest that Balancing Time overcomes some of the limitations of cumulative opportunities and that it is a useful tool for planners, particularly in the cities with job opportunities concentrated in central areas. Given its simplicity, Balancing Time is especially relevant in the context of the Global South, where most transport agencies face data limitations and have low skilled technical staff.