AccesoBarrio – A web-based platform to evaluate and model urban accessibilit

In the recent North American urban planning literature the objective of a “walkable” neighbourhood has received much attention. Objectives such as (i) higher (population) density and (ii) mixed residential and commercial use of urban lots are promoted as benefits. “Walkability” can be seen as a particular form of “accessibility". Whereas walkability has a strong local or neighbourhood focus, accessibility accounts for access to economic activities (e.g., work places) and opportunities (e.g., leisure) on all geographic scales, from the neighbourhood to city to region. The goal of the AccesoBarrio Project is to develop a web-based  platform that permits to evaluate accessibility and in particular walkability. Thereby we aim to develop new algorithms and functionality to measure accessibility for different demographic groups, such as school children, adults and retired people. The platform should also provide tools that allow to evaluate the impact of different transportation planning scenarios, such as a new bike path, changes to the frequency of bus lines, and the addition of a new subway line. The platform will use open data sources like OpenStreetMap so that accessibility can be measured for different cities in Chile and compared to cities worldwide.