Analyzing secondary school accessibility in terms of public transport and active travel in Mikkeli and Kouvola

Abstract

Recently throughout the world there has been a growing interest in accessibility modeling. Although accessibility has been measured extensively in the capital region of Finland, insufficient research exists outside of this area. The accessibility of secondary schools in Mikkeli and Kouvola by public transport and active travel requires further investigation. The objective of this study is to analyze secondary school accessibility utilizing only public transport and walking. This will be achieved by employing python coding to create clusters of similar schools, and geographic information systems (GIS) software in examining public transit networks and creating an accessibility model. The cities of Mikkeli and Kouvola re-semble each other when it comes to general urban typology, therefore they have comparable public transportation systems. The results of this study further amplify this point, with secondary schools having similar accessibility, although ac-cessibility to secondary schools in and around Kouvola is slightly better.