Quantifying Accessibility of Non-Motorized Transportation Modes in Recreational Areas: Case Study of Mill Creek Canyon, Utah

摘要

Multimodal transportation is encouraged in recreational areas, particularly non-motorized modesthat provide people with the opportunity to be physically active while sustaining the naturalenvironment. Accessibility is an important indicator of transportation performance, because itaddresses how transportation solutions are tailored to their contexts; however performancemeasures related to accessibility are rarely addressed in the literature. This study develops anaccessibility measurement framework for pedestrians and bicyclists in parks and recreation areas,and applies it to the recreational area in Mill Creek Canyon, Utah. Data collection, mapping ofpotential origins and destinations, and proposed accessibility measurements were performedusing on-site visits, Google Earth and Arc GIS. Pedestrian and bicyclists requirements for pathwidth, speed, and acceptable travel time were adopted from existing transportation policies andguidelines. The analyzed results showed that accessibility for bicyclists is higher than the overallpedestrian access, and the potential need for improved trail connectivity. Destinations that aretoo densely spaced in recreational areas are likely to result in increase of vehicle-miles-traveled(VMT), noise, and emissions through an area. Accessibility criteria used in urban environmentsare not directly applicable to recreational areas, so additional research is needed to determine theexact values of proposed measures that would indicate good or poor accessibility for nonmotorizedmodes. Decision makers could further use these measures to properly evaluate qualityof service for pedestrians and bicyclists, as they are broadly applicable to recreation areas ofdifferent sizes and flexible enough to grow into accessibility guidelines with further researchexpansion.