Beter bereikbaar? Ten years of Dutch accessibility, measured

26 September 2024

PBL published Beter bereikbaar?, by Jeroen Bastiaanssen and Marnix Breedijk, which asks how access to jobs and amenities in the Netherlands changed between 2012 and 2022, and how much of that change came from spatial planning and how much from the transport system. We computed the accessibility indicators behind it, with the national network model we build and maintain for PBL.

The findings are uncomfortable. Cutting back public transport produced an absolute decline in the accessibility of amenities, with journey times growing longest in the evenings and at weekends, and most in rural areas and on the edges of cities. The already large gap between people who have a car and people who do not grew wider over the decade.

Measuring this properly is the whole point. The result rests on real timetables, real networks and real fares, per mode and per departure moment, rather than on straight-line distance to the nearest facility.