The social dimension of barrier effects of transport infrastructure

Paper in proceeding, 2020

Motorways and railways increase regional accessibility but can at the same time reduce local accessibility by creating barriers in pedestrian and bicycle networks. This can influence several SDGs, such as SDG 5 (gender equality), 10 (reduced inequalities), and 11 (sustainable cities and communities). This paper presents some first principles of how quantitative indicators of direct barrier effects can be adapted in order to address specific social groups. To demonstrate this, the indicator 'Choice', from a set of four indicators previously developed, was adapted to assess accessibility by children to parks, and waterside and leisure facilities. The indicator was applied to a case in Gothenburg, Sweden, where a GIS-based analysis measured changes in barrier effects brought about by hypothetically placing an existing motorway and railway in tunnels. The results demonstrate how such local accessibility indicators can be adapted to make them relevant for impact assessments of infrastructure projects, and thus enable the measurement of compliance with social sustainability targets in transportation infrastructure planning.