Confusing Access and Mobility

Transportation planner Jarrett Walker, on why transportation planners can't stop applying freeway concepts to transit and the important difference between access and mobility.

1 minute read

April 18, 2010, 7:00 AM PDT

By Tim Halbur

With a nod to Todd Litman, Walker explains that "mobility is how far you can go, while access is how many desirable things you can do. You can improve your access, but not your mobility, by moving closer to work, or moving in with your romantic partner. In this urbanist formulation, access can be improved through by putting desirable things closer together -- a process that we all consider when we decide where to live, and which urban designers do in the aggregate when they design or redesign communities in response to the demands that our individual decisions have generated."

FULL STORY: applying highway concepts to transit

Friday, April 16, 2010 in Human Transit

Transportation World Transit Mobility Accessibility

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