Ensuring equitable access to healthcare services is a critical objective for urban mobility planning, particularly in large metropolitan areas where public transportation serves as a primary mode of access for many residents. However, traditional accessibility measures often overlook travel time variability, leading to overestimated service reliability and inadequate assessments of transit-based equity. This study examines the accessibility and reliability of public transport to healthcare facilities in Athens, Greece, leveraging big data from Google Maps to analyze travel times from bus stops to hospitals during peak morning hours (08:00–10:00). By collecting and processing real-time travel time data, this research evaluates spatial and temporal variations in public transport healthcare accessibility, identifying disparities across different areas of the city. To achieve this, univariate and bivariate spatial analysis was employed to determine the geographic distribution of accessibility and reliability indicators across Athens, allowing for the identification of clusters and patterns of inequality. The findings highlight significant disparities in travel time variation, with certain districts experiencing prolonged and inconsistent public transport journeys to hospitals. These results offer valuable insights for policymakers and transport planners, providing a better understanding of targeted interventions aimed at enhancing public transport efficiency, reducing accessibility gaps, and improving the reliability of travel to critical healthcare services.
Bakatsi et al. (Sat,) studied this question.