Does Accessibility Planning address what matters? A review of current practice and practitioner perspectives

Curl, A. , Nelson, J.D. and Anable, J. (2011) Does Accessibility Planning address what matters? A review of current practice and practitioner perspectives. Research in Transportation Business and Management, 2, pp. 3-11. (doi: 10.1016/j.rtbm.2011.07.001)

Abstract

'Accessibility' has become commonplace in transport planning and as such there is a plethora of interpretations of what accessibility means, what constitutes a good measure of accessibility, and how this might be applied in practice. This paper presents an overview of approaches to measuring accessibility and presents a case study of Accessibility Planning in England — one approach to formalising the concept of accessibility. Results of semi-structured interviews with local authority officers are discussed to establish whether current approaches, allow their desired outcomes to be met. This approach demonstrates where there might be gaps between measured or modelled accessibility and the perceptions of the individuals. Findings suggest that while the process is deemed useful in raising the profile of accessibility issues, measures of accessibility do not necessarily easily translate into quantifying benefits of those improvements that are perceived by practitioners to improve accessibility and reduce transport disadvantage.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Research in Transportation Business and Management. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Research in Transportation Business and Management 2:3-11 (2012) DOI: 10.1016/j.rtbm.2011.07.001
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Curl, Dr Angela
• Authors: Curl, A., Nelson, J.D., and Anable, J.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies
• Journal Name: Research in Transportation Business and Management
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 2210-5395
• Published Online: 01 July 2011
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2012 Elsevier
• First Published: First published in Research in Transportation Business & Management 2:3-11
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher