The measurement of relative accessibility

Baxter R. S. and Lenzi G. (1974) The measurement of relative accessibility, Reg. Studies 9, 15–26. The measurement of physical separation between the zones of a sub-divided study area is a common necessity in regional analysis. It is obligatory when the concept of accessibility is intrinsic to the analysis and on these occasions distance is commonly used as the unit of physical separation. Whilst an air line distance matrix might prove suitable at the regional scale, it is necessary to use more sophisticated measures when working at the urban scale because physical constraints play a dominant role in dictating the actual separation between zones. This paper presents a method of arriving at an accurate distance matrix at the urban scale using abstract network patterns incorporating the geographical constraints. This obviates the need for expensive digitization and analysis of the road network as a pre-requisite in the compilation of the distance matrix.