Time-series analysis of accessibility in the city of Johannesburg

Abstract

Accessibility, a concept that has been extensively studied and developed since the late 1950s, describes the ease or difficulty of reaching a destination from a particular location. Within the corpus of accessibility measures is the Net Wage After Commute (NWAC) which describes the potential wage earnable less the transport costs incurred to commute to work from a particular location. The NWAC explicitly accounts for transport costs as a measure of impedance which is crucial in a province like Gauteng with low transport affordability. This study explores the evolution of accessibility for poor, public transport captive households in the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) by calculating accessibility to jobs from a select group of locations biennially from 2009 to 2013. A time-series analysis of accessibility reveals that accessibility improves from one analysis year to the next primarily due to increases in the potential wage earnable. Although fully operational since 2011, the analysis reveals that the Rea Vaya BRT (Phase 1A) only makes a notable addition to job accessibility from Soweto in 2013. However, its limited catchment area relative to existing services, amongst other things, limits its effects on accessibility. Development of economically vibrant corridors along BRT routes could assist in leveraging this service.