Browsing by Author "Hurmerinta, Saara"

As inequality has increased globally, so has its spatial expression, socio-economic segregation. Traditionally Finland has been considered an egalitarian social welfare state where inequality and segregation are low. While inequality decreased until the 1990s, it has since started to grow and so has socio-economic segregation. In Helsinki Metropolitan Area this development is seen in the growing welfare differentiation between neighbourhoods. As policies to prevent segregation have proven inadequate, the role of spatial accessibility in connecting people with opportunities has grown increasingly important. Using data on travel times and population statistics on a 250m x 250m grid this thesis tries to answer two questions; (1) to what extent does spatial accessibility differ for different socio-economic groups in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area and (2) how has spatial accessibility developed from 2013 to 2018 and how have different socio-economic groups been affected. Spatial accessibility was defined by calculating the average travel time by public transport and by car between every 250m x 250m grid cell in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area using Helsinki Region Travel Time Matrix. To identify advantaged and disadvantaged grid cells in the area, an index of disadvantage was calculated using Statistic’s Finland’s Population Grid Database. Data from these two sources were combined to assess whether there is a difference in spatial accessibility between the least and most disadvantaged quintiles in Helsinki Metropolitan Area. While the main focus of the thesis is on public transport, spatial accessibility by car is also of interest, especially in relation to public transport. This thesis finds that there is a difference between spatial accessibility from the least and most disadvantaged grid cells in favour of the most disadvantaged, though the results are statistically significant only for public transport. Furthermore, the difference in spatial accessibility by public transport has increased from 2013 to 2018 in the area in favour of the disadvantaged grid cells while spatial accessibility by car has decreased. Furthermore, spatial accessibility is far better by car than by public transport and despite two major investments in public transport in the area during the study period, spatial accessibility by public transport as defined by average travel time has decreased.