Social exclusion and transportation in Peachtree City, Georgia

This paper will discuss how, in a small American city, Peachtree City (43km south of Atlanta), the flexibility and relative affordability of electric golf carts, as a viablealternative to the automobile, means that the level at which families and individuals are disadvantaged through their lack of access to public/private transport is effectively lowered. Economic access to golf carts, in of itself, would not be sufficient if it were not for the extensive, highly penetrative and ‘ringy’ spatial structure of the cart path system, a mostly-segregated, 150 kilometre network. A spatial analysis of this dual transportation system is presented and its implications discussed. The conclusion of this paper is that the duality of the effective spatial structure of the cart path networkand the relative low cost and inherent flexibility of the golf carts combine to reduce transportation-linked social exclusion in Peachtree City. This argument is substantiated, in the final section of the paper, through the evidence of a questionnairedistributed to a random sampling of 1,038 property owners and renters in the city

Social exclusion and transportation in Peachtree City, Georgia

This paper will discuss how, in a small American city, Peachtree City (43km south of Atlanta), the flexibility and relative affordability of electric golf carts, as a viablealternative to the automobile, means that the level at which families and individuals are disadvantaged through their lack of access to public/private transport is effectively lowered. Economic access to golf carts, in of itself, would not be sufficient if it were not for the extensive, highly penetrative and 'ringy' spatial structure of the cart path system, a mostly-segregated, 150 kilometre network. A spatial analysis of this dual transportation system is presented and its implications discussed. The conclusion of this paper is that the duality of the effective spatial structure of the cart path networkand the relative low cost and inherent flexibility of the golf carts combine to reduce transportation-linked social exclusion in Peachtree City. This argument is substantiated, in the final section of the paper, through the evidence of a questionnairedistributed to a random sampling of 1,038 property owners and renters in the city

A new theory of space syntax

Relations between different components of urban structure are often measured in aliteral manner, along streets for example, the usual representation being routesbetween junctions which form the nodes of an equivalent planar graph. A popularvariant on this theme ? space syntax ? treats these routes as streets containing one ormore junctions, with the equivalent graph representation being more abstract, basedon relations between the streets which themselves are treated as nodes. In this paper,we articulate space syntax as a specific case of relations between any two sets, in thiscase, streets and their junctions, from which we derive two related representations.The first or primal problem is traditional space syntax based on relations betweenstreets through their junctions; the second or dual problem is the more usualmorphological representation of relations between junctions through their streets.The unifying framework that we propose suggests we shift our focus from the primalproblem where accessibility or distance is associated with lines or streets, to the dualproblem where accessibility is associated with points or junctions. This traditionalrepresentation of accessibility between points rather than between lines is easier tounderstand and makes more sense visually. Our unifying framework enables us toeasily shift from the primal problem to the dual and back, thus providing a muchricher interpretation of the syntax. We develop an appropriate algebra which providesa clearer approach to connectivity and distance in the equivalent graphrepresentations, and we then demonstrate these variants for the primal and dualproblems in one of the first space syntax street network examples, the French villageof Gassin. An immediate consequence of our analysis is that we show how the directconnectivity of streets (or junctions) to one another is highly correlated with thedistance measures used. This suggests that a simplified form of syntax can beoperationalized through counts of streets and junctions in the original street network

Reformulating Space Syntax: The Automatic Definition and Generation of Axial Lines and Axial Maps

Space syntax is a technique for measuring the relative accessibility of different locations in a spatial system which has been loosely partitioned into convex spaces.These spaces are approximated by straight lines, called axial lines, and the topological graph associated with their intersection is used to generate indices of distance, called integration, which are then used as proxies for accessibility. The most controversial problem in applying the technique involves the definition of these lines. There is no unique method for their generation, hence different users generate different sets of lines for the same application. In this paper, we explore this problem, arguing that to make progress, there need to be unambiguous, agreed procedures for generating such maps. The methods we suggest for generating such lines depend on defining viewsheds, called isovists, which can be approximated by their maximum diameters,these lengths being used to form axial maps similar to those used in space syntax. We propose a generic algorithm for sorting isovists according to various measures,approximating them by their diameters and using the axial map as a summary of the extent to which isovists overlap (intersect) and are accessible to one another. We examine the fields created by these viewsheds and the statistical properties of the maps created. We demonstrate our techniques for the small French town of Gassin used originally by Hillier and Hanson (1984) to illustrate the theory, exploring different criteria for sorting isovists, and different axial maps generated by changing the scale of resolution. This paper throws up as many problems as it solves but we believe it points the way to firmer foundations for space syntax

How to monitor sustainable mobility in cities? Literature review in the frame of creating a set of sustainable mobility indicators

The role of sustainable mobility and its impact on society and the environment is evident and recognized worldwide. Nevertheless, although there is a growing number of measures and projects that deal with sustainable mobility issues, it is not so easy to compare their results and, so far, there is no globally applicable set of tools and indicators that ensure holistic evaluation and facilitate replicability of the best practices. In this paper, based on the extensive literature review, we give a systematic overview of relevant and scientifically sound indicators that cover different aspects of sustainable mobility that are applicable in different social and economic contexts around the world. Overall, 22 sustainable mobility indicators have been selected and an overview of the applied measures described across the literature review has been presented

The Flow of People as an Indicator for the Appraisal of HST related Strategies and Interventions into Urban Space

This paper divides into a theoretical and a practical part. The former describes the relevance of the flow of people for urban development and the appraisal of HST related issues. Further Space Syntax and its main ideas and measures are introduced, like the role of axial maps and their preparation for example. Part one also contains background information about the collection of data on site in Leipzig. The second part exemplifies the case of the City-Tunnel Project in Leipzig, Germany and the practical use of the Space Syntax method. The project stands for the implementation of a future regional train network in the wider metropolitan area of Leipzig and Hall

Towards a walkability model for strategic evaluation of policy action and urban active transport interventions

This article presents a recently developed walkability modelling tool that draws on a number of UK national datasets to construct a statistical picture of the potential of streets to be used for walking. Using components common to standard North American models, but adapted for the UK context, the model is novel in its integration of space syntax analysis as a measure of network accessibility as well as in its use of large data surfaces that are not constrained by geographical administrative units. The study area of Greater London is used to validate the model against actual pedestrian activity measurements from across the city. A range of results from the analysis are presented. This approach enables the integration of the model with numerous other datasets and spatial data structures used in transport applications, expanding its capabilities from research into the realm of active travel infrastructure planning and evaluatio