Making accessibility accessible: A flexible planning tool for enhanced urban analytics

Most existing accessibility analysis tools are ad-hoc systems with predetermined geographic coverage, spatial resolution, methodology and indicators. These features are often challenging to modify by end-users without collaboration with the original tool developers. This might partially explain why accessibility tools remain in use predominantly within the academic realm, resulting in a seemingly low uptake among transport and planning professionals. ADAPT (Automatic Dynamic Accessibility Planning Tool) was designed as the first step to bridge this gap by enhancing user empowerment. It enables users to supply their own analysis areas, choose the resolution, and focus on any specific indicator (e.g. residents' access to jobs, education and services; businesses' access to the labour pool or potential clients/customers). The goal is to provide a versatile tool, in which users can insert their available data and geography and measure and map accessibility, without requiring prior geospatial analysis expertise or reliance on specialised closed-system tools.