Document Type

Conference Paper

Publication Date

2008

Subject Area

Location - UK, Modes of Transport - Pedestrian, Population - Elderly, Social Issues - Social exclusion, Transport planning - Accessibility planning

Abstract

Because of barriers to their mobility, some people are not able to walk as much as they wish, and so cannot reach as many opportunities as they would like. It is increasingly being recognised that transport policy should take into account the needs of those who are socially excluded. However, improving accessibility by investing in infrastructure and services to help overcome these barriers costs money. This raises a number of questions such as: Given alternative ways of increasing accessibility, which gives the greatest benefit in terms of the greatest number of people with increased access per unit of investment?; How much improvement in accessibiliy can be bought for a given sum of money and; Given that funding is limited, and often is phased over time, what is the best way to start making improvements? These issues are being explored in a research project being carried out at University College, London, in which a GIS-based tool AMELIA (A Methodology for Enhancing Life by Increasing Accessibility) is being developed to examine how transport policies can increase social inclusion by allowing more people to reach opportunities including shops, employment, leisure facilities and medical and welfare centres, taking into account various mobility guidelines. St Albans in Hertfordshire is being used as the case study. In the paper, the procedure for using AMELIA is explained. Then the use of the software is demonstrated by examining the cost-effectiveness of three policy actions in the city centre of St Albans: providing dropped kerbs, reducing the gradient on dropped kerbs, and providing wider pavements, and then all three together. The effects are considered for the population of St Albans aged 65 or over coming into the city centre by walking all the way for those wholive close by, and by bus and car for others. The analysis is in terms of a walking trip from home, the bus stop or car park, as appropriate, to three destinations and then back to the origin. The walking times are considered as three possible benchmarks. The analysis is considered in terms of how many more people can make the trip within the benchmark times for each of the policy actions. Various spatial strategies for implementation are considered; the whole city centre, the area between the three venues and the areas around them. Indicative costs of implementing the strategies are used to see which is the most cost-effective, in terms of increasing accessibility at the lowest price per head of the potential beneficiaries. The conclusion from this on-going research are helping to address the types of questions identified above. Many assumptions have to be made in carrying out the work, but it does offer the potential to analyse systematically the role of accessibility policies in reducing social exclusion. These issues are complex, but need to be considered by society. AMELIA can help to do this.