ACCESSIBILITY MEASURES OF UNITED-STATES METROPOLITAN-AREAS

This paper constructs an accessibility index that captures the overall transportation access level of an area. This index is formulated as a natural extension of the existing relative and integral accessibility measures. Theoretical modelling and empirical tests demonstrate that the index has a convergence property and can be calculated accurately without incurring very high costs. Regression analyses show that the i ndex captures the overall accessibility levels of areas very well. Usi ng this index, the overall access levels of the sixty largest U.S. met ropolitan areas are calculated.