Why We Should Care About intra-metropolitan Accessibility and
How We Measure It
Amy Helling
Abstract
Notions of intra-metropolitan accessibility are at the heart of many
transportation and land use policy prescriptions, ranging from promoting
jobs-housing balance to providing commuter rail and reemphasizing the
pedestrian and transit orientation of traditional neighborhoods. In
spite of
how central the concept of accessibility is to these types of
initiatives, it
is often misunderstood and poorly measured. In this paper, I briefly
summarize issues concerning measurement of intra-metropolitan
accessibility and empirical research into various accessibility measures?
effects on travel, land use and density. I argue that relatively simple
operational definitions have substantial explanatory power within
metropolitan areas, and make accessibility an appropriate performance
objective for metropolitan transportation policy and local land use policy.
I discuss the implications of increased access via telecommunications
and the potential of GIS to create and analyze such measures. The
paper concludes with a proposal for collaborative research which would
develop the same measures of accessibility across several U.S.
metropolitan areas, in order to ascertain how robust their predictive
power is, and hence how they might best be used for planning
purposes.
Bio:
Amy Helling is an Assistant Professor of Public Administration and
Urban Studies at Georgia State University. She has a Master?s degree in
Urban Planning from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a Ph.D.
in Economics from Emory University. She is a member of the American
Institute of Certified Planners, and has practiced planning for 18 years,
including two years with the Atlanta Regional Commission before joining
the Georgia State faculty.
Amy Helling
Department of Public Administration and Urban Studies
School of Policy Studies
Georgia State University
University Plaza
Atlanta, GA 30303-3083
Phone: (404) 651-3352
FAX: (404) 651-1378
email: ahelling@gsu.edu