Austin, Texas parkland active transportation accessibility : a GIS network analyst based approach

This report measures pedestrian and bicyclist accessibility to parklands in Austin, Texas. An overview of current parkland and active transportation planning practices in Austin is given to properly set the scope of study. Past literature regarding the measurement of spatial accessibility is reviewed to formulate a methodology with which to conduct the analysis. In particular, a framework is presented to create formalized pedestrian and bicyclist network datasets within ArcMap’s Network Analyst. Using these specialized network datasets, accessibility measures are calculated using origin destination travel between census block groups and parklands within Austin. From these calculated accessibility measures, levels of equity amongst various socioeconomic groups are studied in order to ascertain if there are any discrepancies between different groups level of access to parklands and availability of active transportation infrastructure. Findings indicate that no significant discrepancy in levels of access to parklands exist between socioeconomic groups studied, pointing to an equitable environment for Austin citizens.