Gipuzkoa as a 30-minute accessible region 

Gipuzkoa is a unique region characterized by a dispersed population along the coast and in the mountainous in land regions, with a high population density in urban areas compared to rural zones. Around one-fourth of the population lives in San Sebastian. With a very strong industrial tradition, the region also faces challenges related to commuting, as industrial hubs are concentrated in the inner regions of the province, requiring many residents to travel long distances for work. As a consequence of these characteristics, the region faces accessibility related challenges, which lead to many kilometers driven by cars. Because of this, transport is the largest contributor to CO2 emissions in Gipuzkoa, accounting for approximately 50% of the total emissions. In response, authorities are prioritizing sustainable mobility solutions to meet carbon neutrality targets by 2050. Achieving this decarbonization mission requires improved accessibility. In particular, the CGL @ Gipuzkoa in collaboration with the local government, have set the goal that residents should be able to meet their daily needs within a 30-minute public transport area, proposing a 30-minute accessible region where essential services are reachable within a short public transit commute. 

However, achieving this requires a detailed understanding of accessibility patterns to understand current strengths and areas for improvement. This research aims to analyze accessibility across Gipuzkoa and develop an interactive tool to support decision-making. The tool will help stakeholders assess challenges and explore policy scenarios. By providing insights into factors such as car dependency, vulnerable populations, and service distribution, the tool developed in this thesis can contribute to informed policy decisions on urban planning, public transport, and regional development. 

To build this interactive tool, data from various sources has been collected and processed, including point of interest locations, transportation networks, geospatial information,a nd socioeconomic and demographic data. These datasets have been cleaned and structured to ensure reliability and granularity. Then, specific routing calculation methods have been designed and applied to obtain accessibility metrics for eighty service types across four transportation modes. The users can visualize the exact travel time from each building in Gipuzkoa. 

Finally, an interactive tool has been developed that allows users to explore the available data and visualize accessibility at two different spatial scales. The tool provides two geospatial resolutions: one at the building scale, which provides a high granularity and accuracy; the other at the census level, which allows understanding the scenario at a territorial level and comparing different areas of Gipuzkoa. Moreover, the tool has a web and a physical version, which makes it accessible for different types of stakeholders, even not technical, but can also be used in workshops or citizen engagement processes by the government.

The project is open source and can be found at: https://github.com/apuenteb/accessibility-tool