New Mapping Tools Shows How to Access Activities by Various Modes
(Updated 04/16/2015) The Metropolitan Chicago Accessibility Explorer is an easy-to-use mapping system that measures the number of activities, including various types of jobs, schools, parks, stores and libraries, that can be reached by residents of specified neighborhoods within a given amount of travel time, by a particular mode and time of day in the Chicago Metropolitan area. The results are displayed on maps that can be adjusted by scale and area. The Accessibility Explorer was developed by the Urban Transportation Center, which is a unit of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago help policy makers, planners, and the general public easily evaluate how transportation system and land use change could alter accessibility.
This is an example of a new class of accessibility-based mapping tools, which also includes WalkScore and TransitScore, and the Access To Jobs Mapping System developed by the Regional Planning Association in the New York City region.
These tools help apply accessibility-based planning, which recognizes that the ultimate goal of most transport activity is access to goods and services, and that many factors can affect accessibility including the convenience, speed, and affordability of travel by various modes, transport network connectivity, land use density, and mix, and mobility substitutes such as telecommunications and delivery services.
(The post was updated to give proper credit to the developers of the app.)
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