Putting accessibility policy appraisal into practice

摘要

Accessibility - the degree to which people can engage with services and activities which may be thought of as normal for the society in which they live -has become a central policy issue in the United Kingdom, and is now incorporated as an explicit goal in a range of policies. Recent developments have meant that people's ability to reach important services and activities is no longer conceptualised simply as a problem of mobility; the turn to accessibility reaches beyond transport, and, for that matter, beyond current explorations into the integration of transport and land use planning. Current thinking also emphasises links between transport and sectors such as education, health, and employment. If we take accessibility seriously, we begin to ask very broad questions about how diverse strategic - and more local - decisions affect the life opportunities of individuals and how they respond, or fail to respond, to the needs of communities. Such questions bring together, for example, decisions about the location of new development and public transport provision with those about forms of support for local services (for example rural post offices) and the provision of health care (for example NHS Direct).