Accessibility measures with competition

On the basis of a literature review on 'accessibility', we propose a new type of accessibility measure that can be used to estimate if jobs are accessible for employees. The basis for the measure is a traditional potential accessibility measure. This kind of measure means calculating the number of jobs which can be reached in a certain amount of time, weighted for travel time (or distance). However, the competition for jobs on the employment market is not taken into account in these measures. This seems to be an omission, considering that the attractiveness of a living area is not only determined by the number of jobs that are within reach, but also by the amount of competition for these jobs. If there are many competitors in the area, the chance of getting the desired job is lower than in a situation with no or few competitors. Therefore we suggest an accessibility measure based on a 'normal' potential accessibility measure corrected for competition on the employment market. We applied the proposed accessibility measure to a Netherlands' case study. The correction factor for employment market competition was found to affect the results. Using the proposed measure, the calculated job accessibility in many Dutch residential areas changes in comparison to calculations using the normal accessibility measure.