A historical collection of impedance functions for active travel accessibility analysis in Canada

Keywords: Active transport mode, accessibility, impedance function
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Active transport accessibility has grown in importance to inform urban planning as cities become more sustainable. Accessibility analysis employs different methods. An important component of these methods is the impedance function used to represent the responses of travelers to the friction of distance separating origins and destinations. The objective of this study is to investigate active travel behavior in Canada using time use data. Empirical estimates of impedance functions are calibrated to assess the time-willingness to reach different destinations by walking and cycling. This research makes use of Canada’s General Social Survey thus giving a historical perspective on active mobility over the past 35 years. The focus of these surveys is on time use and the datasets contain information on travel time by active modes (cycling and walking) as well as the type of activity at the end of the trip which allows us to classify trips by purpose. Our focus is on Canadian Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) and the results indicate that the most common destinations for walking trips after work or school are grocery stores are the most destinations for walking travels respectively. For trips by bicycle the most common destination after traveling to work or school, is sports centers. Strong distance-decay effects are evident from the results. The impedance functions, in addition to providing information about the behavior of active travelers in Canada for the period of time under study, are a valuable resource for implementing active accessibility analysis in Canadian applications.