Development of accessibility is an essential goal for transport policy. In the Netherlands, the government and the provinces seek to minimise the congestion on their highways, while the municipalities aim for an efficient flow of traffic to their city centres and business areas. Notwithstanding these aims, the public authorities, entrepeneurs and other stakeholders differ about the accessibility because they define accessibility differently. Therefore, a consistent definition of accessibility is required. Also essential is a logical approach in which the accessibility indicators of the definition can be operationalized in measurable terms. This has led to the development of the OBER methodology. OBER (in Dutch, Operationalisatie van BERreikbaarheid) stands for a systematic approach which allows for an interrelated set of accessibility goals and for testing realisation by means of research. In this paper the theoretical framework of the OBER methodology is discussed and the conclusions of the theoretical approach are summarised. In the second part a real life example is discussed: the city centre of Utrecht, where the OBER methodology has been applied now.
Abstract