Local accessibility inequalities and willingness to walk in Latin-American cities: Findings from Medellín, Colombia

ABSTRACT

As planning for accessibility is becoming a priority for most cities, policies encouraging short-distance traveling and the use of active modes of transport are gaining force. Emphasizing short-distance travel and localized practices can produce positive sustainable outcomes, but in order to design proper public policies, a deeper understanding of the determinants of this mobility of proximity is still needed. This paper uses mobility data from the city of Medellín, Colombia, to examine the role of local accessibility and the proximate scale in the city's everyday mobility. The analysis aimed at testing whether significant efforts on improving local conditions and fostering local mobility would help to improve social exclusion and transport disadvantage situations by alleviating the need of motorized and long-distance transport. Unlike most traditional analysis, proximity is not defined by Euclidian distance but instead using travel and modal choice variables. Results show the relevance of socioeconomic variables at determining travel behaviors as well as the importance of local accessibility for social groups in situations of transport disadvantage.

Keywords:

• Local accessibility
• Local travel
• Proximity
• Walking
• Medellín

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank Dr. Matt Copley for his professional proofreading services and editing suggestions.