Measuring spatiotemporal accessibility to healthcare with multimodal transport modes in the dynamic traffic environment

Abstract

Research on healthcare accessibility is developing with a focus on multimodal transport modes (MTMs) and multiple time-series variations. A dynamic traffic environment leads travelers to make distinct decisions at different time slots, which impacts spatiotemporal accessibility markedly. Our article proposes a methodological framework to measure spatiotemporal accessibility with multimodal transportation modes and its variation at multiple time series, while accounting for traffic congestion and the probability of residential transport mode choices in a dynamic traffic environment. We selected Nanjing, China, as the study area and pediatric clinic services (PCS) as specific healthcare services to estimate the spatiotemporal accessibility at four representative time slots. The results indicate that the weight estimation of travel time based on MTMs is more propitious than the travel time of single-mode to present real-world travel characteristics and reflects the spatiotemporal distribution and variation of services synthetically. Furthermore, the spatiotemporal accessibility variation of PCS in peripheral suburbs is more pronounced than that in urban centers and rural areas. This work holds pragmatic implications for policymakers in terms of services planning and allocation optimization to improve the equity of resource supply.

Keywords

• spatiotemporal accessibility
• online route planners
• healthcare services
• multimodal transport modes
• residential transport mode choices
• dynamic traffic environment