Travel time, resource reachability and quality of living in urban contexts: A case study from Slovakia

Urban liability and quality of living indexes do not sufficiently address the travel time dimension, although this influences daily mobility and activity choices. This does not allow, for instance, ranking cities by the time that is on average needed — with one or more transport modes — to get to relevant locations such as hospitals or railway stations. This paper provides a contribution in this direction by addressing the theme of resource reachability at the city of Žilina in Slovakia. By means of isochrone maps, it is shown that the public transport network of Žilina has a good coverage and seems optimized for affordability. Interestingly, the combined use of walking and public transport does not bring a significant advantage in terms of reachability compared to walking when a 30-minute time frame is chosen. Investment into cycling infrastructure, currently under-used and under-developed, would allow a competitive and cost-efficient alternative to the car.