Title

Operationalism of accessibility: the practice in Utrecht inner city

Document Type

Conference Paper

Publication Date

1998

Subject Area

Location - Europe, Modes of Transport - Bicycle - Cyclists, Transport planning - Accessibility planning

Abstract

Accessibility is one of the central concepts in transport policy. What the Netherlands public authorities, social organisations and citizens understand by accessibility differs. These different opinions do not make it easier to develop a policy about accessibility. Because the existing Dutch approaches are too limited, the Transport Research Centre (AVV) is searching for better instruments to deal with accessibility in policy processes. For that purpose, in 1993 the OBER-methodology is developed. Subsequently, on the basis of these methodology projects are started to increase the application for policy practises. These projects are OBER-Utrecht and the development of accessibility indicators for the new Dutch Transport Plan. In the first part of this paper the theoretical framework of the OBER-methodology is reviewed. This explanation is taken from Meurs et. al. (1996) and Lonisse et. al. (1995). In the second part is illustrated how the OBER line of reasoning is worked out for the inner city of Utrecht. After the project goals, the premises and a characte- risation of the inner city and the transport policy are described, the interactive approach with its consequences for the practise and the project results are presented.

Comments

Permission to publish abstract given by AET.