Comparing distance, time, and metabolic energy cost functions for walking accessibility in infrastructure-poor regions

Antonio Páez, Zoha Anjum, Sarah E. Dickson-Anderson, Corinne J. Schuster-Wallace, Belén Martín Ramos and Christopher D. Higgins

Journal of Transport Geography, 2020, vol. 82, issue C

Abstract: Accessibility is a widely used concept in transportation planning and research. However a majority of the literature is concerned with accessibility in infrastructure-rich regions where it is used to assess the output of infrastructure. Relatively scant attention in contrast has been paid to the topic of accessibility in infrastructure-poor regions. These are regions characterized by non-homogeneous landscapes with limited or no transportation infrastructure. Even studies that deal with infrastructure-poor regions tend to transpose the methods used elsewhere. This practice seems inappropriate when mobility happens by active rather than motorized modes since the effort required for movement is likely different. The objective of this paper is to compare distance, time, and metabolic energy cost functions in walking accessibility. To this end, we present a case study of accessibility to water in central Kenya. The results indicate that Euclidean distance, surface distance, and travel time correlate better between them than any of them does with metabolic energy. Furthermore, while shortest paths tend to be symmetric for distance and time criteria, under consideration of metabolic energy expenditure pathways change significantly depending on the direction of movement. This has implications for measuring accessibility and equity. By providing alternate mechanisms for valuing the cost of movement, this research suggests avenues to consider vulnerable populations, such as pregnant women who require greater nutritional intake and expend more energy per unit activity. Directions for further research include certain trade-offs between route choice variables across various applications, for example, walking and cycling route choice algorithms.

Keywords: Accessibility; Walking; Cost functions; Tobler's hiking function; Distance; Travel time; Metabolic energy; Water; Kenya; Infrastructure-poor regions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692319303734

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:82:y:2020:i:c:s0966692319303734

DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2019.102564

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Transport Geography is currently edited by Frank Witlox

More articles in Journal of Transport Geography from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().