The effects of the public transport changes in tyne and wear on accessibility have been investigated. The most noticeable change in public transport has been the introduction of the metro but substantial changes have been made also to the bus services in the county. Three types of accessibility are considered - access (of workers) to jobs, access (of firms) to employed residents and access (of locations) to people (acting as a proxy for access to customers for retail or service firms). the analyses show that, with the exception of a few areas, there has been a general increase in accessibility. The greatest increases (up to 100 per cent in places) have occurred in gateshead and in parts of newcastle. The changes are substantially greater than those produced by the land-use changes in the county between 1971 and 1981.
Abstract