From improvements in accessibility to the impact on territorial cohesion: the spatial approach

Authors

  • Marcin Stępniak Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences
  • Piotr Rosik Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5198/jtlu.2015.570

Keywords:

potential accessibility, territorial cohesion, road network development, Poland

Abstract

During the last decade, Poland has experienced a big push in road network development. As a result, the fundamentals of the modern road network have been established. This paper aims to recognize the consequences of changes in accessibility for territorial cohesion, analyzed simultaneously in national and international dimensions. The results provided show that similar spatial patterns and the overall scale of improvement in accessibility lead to entirely different impacts on the level of territorial cohesion. From the international perspective, the investments implemented have a strong positive cohesion impact, while from the national perspective a slight increase in regional polarization has been produced. Moreover, there was an adverse effect on territorial cohesion for almost 40 percent of Polish municipalities, depending on whether or not we include international destinations. The fact that analyses conducted in the national and international dimension yielded opposite results supports the presented approach of a multidimensional evaluation of transport network development.

Downloads

Published

2015-07-07

How to Cite

Stępniak, M., & Rosik, P. (2015). From improvements in accessibility to the impact on territorial cohesion: the spatial approach. Journal of Transport and Land Use, 9(3). https://doi.org/10.5198/jtlu.2015.570

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 3 (2016)

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish with JTLU agree to the following terms: 1) Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial License 4.0 that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. 2) Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. 3) Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.