Lecture 1 and 2 (notes)

Question 1

Supply based measures (example of infrastructure based measure)

Answer 1

Accessibility expressed in characteristics of transport infrastructures and transport systems (E.g. how many kilometers of highway)

Question 2

Used based measures (example of infrastructure based measure)

Answer 2

Accessibility expressed in the performance of transport infrastructure and transport system (vehicle hours lost (delayed time), empty seats in train)

Question 3

Why are infrastructure based measures the most frequently used?

Answer 3

Easy to measure and easy to communicate (everyone knows what you’re talking about)

Question 4

Contours (example of location based measure)

Answer 4

Different clouds of area where the distance is max. 15 min or max. 30 min. So every location within that cloud has a travel time of less than 30 min

Question 5

Relative and integral accessibility (example of location based measure)

Answer 5

Relative: just difference between A and B
Integral: you take one point and you look at how many different supermarkets are there in the near vicinity

Question 6

Time-geography (example of person-based measure)

Answer 6

Diagram where space is collapsed on the horizontal axis and time is presented vertically. Is about how activity programmes can be carried out given time restrictions using space-time prisms to describe the travelling patterns in space and time

Question 7

Generalized cost measures (Utility based measure)

Answer 7

Accessibility expressed in traveller’s total costs to go from A to B, including all relevant time aspects, out of pockets costs and the comfort/quality aspect

Question 8

Logsum measures (Utility based measure)

Answer 8

Accessibility expressed in economic utility that an individual assigns to the ability to reach certain activities that is the net effect of costs and benefits

Question 9

Why firms and employees are more productive in cities?

Answer 9

1) sorting: best educated people work in cities
2) Labour market pooling: use of similar workers
3) Access to specialized goods and services: input sharing with customer-supplier relationship
4) Technological or knowledge spill-overs: Quicker diffusion of ideas and technology

Question 10

Localisation economies

Answer 10

Firms from same industry benefit from each other proximity. Focuses on specialization,
E.g. Silicon Valley

Question 11

Urbanisation economies

Answer 11

Firms from a range of industries benefit from concentrations.
E.g. the city

Question 12

Borrowed size

Answer 12

Borrowing strength of neighbours: cooperation has benefits, e.g. Randstad with North and South wing, Brabant and Belgium