Access: The transport-land use economic link

The notion of access has evolved from a physical measure of trip interaction to a more economic concept associated with transport benefits. This paper follows the economic interpretation forward in order to understand the potentiality of access as a consistent economic link between the land use system and the transport system. Consistency is achieved in an economic approach based upon the argument that trips are made only if the benefit derived from making contact with other activities exceeds the transport generalized cost. This framework provides economic measures of access, as evidence of impact on origin and destination of trips, which can be calculated from the analysis of the transport system in some relevant cases. This paper analyses how to calculate measures of access from transport demand models and how to allocate transport benefits to the origin and destination activities. Finally, it describes the use of herein proposed access measures in land use-transport interaction modeling.