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How Do Socio-Demographics and The Built Environment Affect Individual Accessibility Based on Activity Space as A Transport Exclusion Indicator?

Chen, Na
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9085-1014
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1467329535

Abstract Details

2016, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, City and Regional Planning.
Since the early 2000s, accessibility-based planning has been increasingly used to mitigate urban problems (e.g., traffic congestion, fuel consumption, air pollution and spatial mismatch) from a sustainable perspective. In particular, the concept of accessibility has been applied to study transport exclusion in many studies. Accessibility is a more appropriate indicator to treat urban problems and transport solutions which considers non-transport aspects of urban life, as compared to traditional transport planning with a focus on mobility. A better of understanding how accessibility is measured and analyzed for transport-related social exclusion may support the paradigm shift from mobility-based planning to accessibility-based planning through specifying potential accessibility improvement strategies. Most accessibility studies use descriptive comparison and geographical mapping with enhanced GIS-based tools to identify the transportation disadvantage status of people and places. However, few of them shed light on the effects of socio-demographics (e.g., income and gender) and the built environment (e.g., density) on accessibility at individual level as a measure of transport exclusion. This dissertation measures individual accessibility as the opportunities available per sq. mile within individual’s daily activity space for evaluating transport exclusion status based on the Capability Approach (CA). Under the theoretical framework of the CA, this study uses the data from the 2012 Northeast Ohio Regional Travel Survey and two types of opportunities (land uses and jobs) to calculate and compare individual accessibility based on income (low-, medium- and high-income), age (adolescents and the elderly), race and gender. In the study region, low-income and non-whites are not found to be disadvantaged in terms of accessibility to various types of opportunities. Adolescents and the elderly have significantly lower access to all different types of land uses and jobs, while females only suffer from low accessibility to industrial opportunities. Path models are estimated to examine the relationships between socio-demographics, built environment, trip characteristics and individual accessibility. This study applies K-means cluster analysis to construct seven neighborhood types to account for the built environment. The results identify some transportation disadvantages in terms of relatively low accessibility to different opportunities. Living in urbanized neighborhoods with higher job-population balance and better transit proximity increases people’s accessibility after controlling for other characteristics. These findings suggest that for planners and policy-makers it is essential to consider access to different opportunities while evaluating the social issues related to transportation investments and projects. It is also important to consider the effects of the built environment from a comprehensive perspective, instead of only looking at land-use features individually.
Gulsah Akar (Advisor)
Philip A. Viton (Advisor)
Rachel Garshick Kleit (Committee Member)
119 p.
Transportation Planning; Urban Planning
Individual accessibility; activity space; transport exclusion; path analysis; built environment; K-means cluster analysis; Socio-demographics

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Chen, N. (2016). How Do Socio-Demographics and The Built Environment Affect Individual Accessibility Based on Activity Space as A Transport Exclusion Indicator? [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1467329535

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Chen, Na. How Do Socio-Demographics and The Built Environment Affect Individual Accessibility Based on Activity Space as A Transport Exclusion Indicator? 2016. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1467329535.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Chen, Na. "How Do Socio-Demographics and The Built Environment Affect Individual Accessibility Based on Activity Space as A Transport Exclusion Indicator?" Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1467329535

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1467329535
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.