Cityndex: an active accessibility indicator based on effort and distance

Source abstract

: This article introduces cityndex, an urban active accessibility indicator that considers two deterrents to active travel: distance and metabolic effort. The cityndex is a probabilistic indicator, inspired by classic accessibility measures, that estimates the potential fraction of one’s daily utilitarian trips that can expectably be carried out using an active mode. It accounts for the effect of each deterrent and combines two active modes: walking and cycling. Consideration of effort makes this indicator especially suited to assess active accessibility of hilly cities. The methodology makes extensive use of geographic information systems to calculate cityndex values and represent them in a map. The approach is demonstrated for a case study for the city of Coimbra, Portugal, for which cityndex maps were derived. Results show that hilliness can decrease the potential for active travel by 1/3 to 1/2 and that inhabitants living in areas with high inclines or plateaus with few nearby facilities may have poor accessibility scores, even if their location is central. The cityndex can be used by city decision makers to plan their city for active travel.