Job accessibility, barrier or lever to employment

Mobility's societal role emphasizes accessibility, as people need reachable activities and destinations to engage fully in society. Employment access is particularly impacted by transport options, with long or costly commutes affecting job retention, satisfaction, and work-life balance. Traditionally, cost-benefit approaches focused on reducing travel time, but infrastructure policy is shifting to prioritize universal accessibility.

The Integrated Perspective on Accessibility (IPOA) methodology is a python-tool that quantifies accessibility disparities and assesses urban and transport policy impacts. Using neighborhood-level data on jobs, residences, commuting times, and costs, IPOA evaluates job accessibility across different demographics, considering factors like skill level and income. IPOA’s applications extend to various sectors and modes of travel, including car use, public transport, and Mobility as a Service (MaaS).

The Flemish government (Department of Work and Social Economy) commissioned the consortium of The University of Antwerp, Mobiel21 and Een Nieuwe Kijk to deploy the IPOA method for the first time in Flanders, in the Viona project “Jobbereikbaarheid, drempel of hefboom naar werk” (Job accessibility, barrier or lever to employment). IPOA is being used to obtain a better insight into the role of accessibility for labor market policies. The purpose is (1) to make labor market policy less transport-blind and more accessibility-sensitive and (2) to ensure that transport policy incorporates differences between groups and questions of fairness in its methodologies. The project involves a very active sounding board group, including social partners, policy experts and interest groups, ensuring the support and usefulness of research choices and results.

Researcher: Josefien Hoerée
Promotor: Thomas Vanoutrive​​
Partners: Mobiel 21, Een Nieuwe Kijk​
Funding: Department Werk en Sociale Economie (Flemish Government)
Period: 2024-2025
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