Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 35.3
The time-space approach to accessibility at the local level
The accompanying map (Figure 35.3) is an example of
the type of results that one can get from applying the
'time-space' approach to accessibility at local level. It
should be noted that this area, in northern Powys, Wales,
was selected largely from the evidence of the regional-
scale overview offered in Figure 35.2. Complete
description of accessibility in any area is obtained by
working at a combination of scales.
For this exercise, access is considered to be 'needed'
to a maximum of twenty-eight destination 'functions',
although not all are relevant to each of the social groups
within the population. The bar charts applicable to each
village are divided for convenience into work (three
functions), shopping (five), health (five), administration
(six), and leisure (nine). The scaling represents the
degree of access achievable, under the defined
conditions, relative to the optimum (100 per cent), where
all people have access to all relevant functions. The
advantages of car users over non-car users are
immediately apparent. However, shortfalls in the cases
of health and administration functions are due to time,
not transport, factors, i.e. facility opening hours clash with
the times that many people are assumed to be at work.
Nowhere is it possible for non-car users to get to work in
any of the towns, due to the absence of bus services at
the required times and frequencies. Access by non-car
users to other function types is extremely variable,
dependent upon surviving village-based facilities,
proximity to bus routes, and complex timing and
frequency allowances. In addition to maps of this type,
the methodology can generate many alternative
representations of accessibility (Nutley 1983; 1984).
Figure 35.3
Accessibility at the
local scale, by village, using
time-space methods, North
Powys, Wales, 1980.
