Exploring the utility of the spatiallyconstrained accessibility measure in integrating urban cycling and land-use in Pune, India

Abstract

Urban cycling in many developing cities is greatly hindered by the physical barriers occasioned by the dichotomous approach to urban land-use and transport planning. This divided approach to planning engenders urban forms that are incompatible with the cycling needs, thus making cycling unsafe and unattractive. While this is so, literature suggests that the concept of accessibility offers a useful framework for integrating transport and land-use. However previous studies have not explicitly investigated the impact of physical barriers to accessibility. This article develops a spatiallyconstrained accessibility measure and explores its utility in integrating urban cycling and land-use. Revealed and stated preference data is analysed to find out the cycling behaviour and patterns as well as the physical factors that inhibit cycling in Pune. The results of this analysis enable the study to calibrate an accessibility measure that takes cognizance of the physical barriers that stifle cycling. A key finding of the study is that the spatially-constrained accessibility measure can enable different levels of accessibility in different parts of a city to be estimated under different land-use scenarios. Accessibility indices derived from this kind of modelling can also offer a common basis for land-use planners and transport planners to prepare plans that are sensitive to both cycling and land-use needs. The article identifies the need for empirical studies that deliberately single out the exact sections of the city roads that constitute barriers to cycling in order to make the measure more useful.