New Metrics for Inclusive Accessibility by Proximity

Strategies to promote accessibility by proximity are affecting several cities around the words, aiming at creating the conditions, through planning policies, to reduce the spatial and temporal intensities and environmental impacts of daily travels by providing accessible services and opportunities in physical proximity to the citizen. In these experiences, proximity is generally declined in “functional” terms, thus conceived as the physical spatio-temporal distance to essential daily services and opportunities. The chapter proposes to enrich this concept by combining a functional dimension of proximity, measured through an infrastructure-based approach, with a relational one, focused on the exchange of resources and collaboration spontaneously activated in a community, sharing specific accessibility-related needs, problems and mobility opportunities. Both functional and relational proximities are relevant and complementary for better understanding and measuring accessibility by proximity as a condition for a more sustainable, resilient and inclusive city. Based on this, the chapter introduces an index for measuring both the functional and the relational prox-imity, called Inclusive Accessibility by Proximity Index (IAPI), to support policy for promoting forms of accessibility by proximity through the improvement of active modes-based access to essential services. Through a concrete application of the IAPI in the city of Bologna (Italy) and Mykolaiv (Ukraine), the chapter discusses how the proposed index, characterized by a high level of spatial detail, context-sensitivity, and high transferability, can be usefully employed for ensuring equitable access to services and opportunities in very different and challenging spatial conditions.