Geographia PolonicaVolume 87, Issue 1, pp. 157-160http://dx.doi.org/10.7163/GPol.2014.10

INSTITUTE OF GEOGRAPHY AND SPATIAL ORGANIZATIONPOLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

www.igipz.pan.pl

www.geographiapolonica.pl

A matter of key significance in studies of spatial accessibility is the determina-tion of journey times. This reflects the fact that a shorter journey time denotes better communications and greater possibilities for relationships to be entered into, at the same time accounting for relevance in assessing the functioning of transport and settlement systems, as well as socioeconomic develop-

ment more generally. The measure of spatial accessibility accepted most widely is based around time – this being characterised by a universality allowing for indirect assess-ment of economic costs.

Research on accessibility is seen to lack universal comparisons as to potential pos-sibilities associated with journey times. Solu-tions resorted to generally make reference

TRANSPORT- AND SETTLEMENT-RELATED TIME EFFICIENCY OF ROAD JOURNEYS TAKEN IN POLAND

Przemysław Śleszyński

Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences Twarda 51/55, 00-818 Warsaw: Polande-mail: psleszyn@twarda.pan.pl

AbstractPresented here with reference to Poland is a new method by which to assess the efficiency of a country’s transport network in relation to its settlement network. The work described proceeds on the assumption that efficiency is greatest where connections by road for private cars take the shortest route in a straight line, without restrictions or limitations in the course of the journey made. Real barriers and limitations arising from bends and speed limits reduce traffic speeds, thereby limiting the efficiency in transport-related and settlement terms.

Key wordsefficiency • effectiveness • spatial accessibility • transport network • settlement network • travel time • Google Map • Poland

VARIA: POLAND ON MAPS

Geographia Polonica 2014, 87, 1, pp. 157-160

158 Przemysław Śleszyński

Geographia Polonica 2014, 87, 1, pp. 157-160

to absolute journey times, as well as differ-ences between them, for example in different periods.

The index proposed here takes advantage of the fact that transport linkages do not usu-ally take the shortest (straight-line) routes, while speeds achieved in the course of jour-neys are generally far from the maximum ones possible, thanks to numerous limita-tions that relate to technical and operational parameters of roads, as well as the intensity of traffic and restrictions provided for in law. The efficiency referred to here is thus a meas-ure of the degree to which the system works, denoting as it does the difference between real and ideal (optimal) times needed to cov-er a given unit of distance. The difference between the ideal and real times is what gives rise to limitations on transport- and settlement-related efficiency.

A graphic interpretation of the index is offered in Figure 1. The examples provid-ed assume a value for ideal speed vo equal to 90 km·h-1, as well as a real one expressed as the mean for the whole section of road vr which stands at 60 km·h-1. Moreover, the real section of road between points A and B is 80 km long, while the straight line distance linking these points (actually the shortest dis-tance running along the land surface, with no account taken of downward slopes in the terrain) is 50 km long. Thus, were ideal move-ment to be possible, the section would be cov-ered in 33 minutes, while in reality it takes 80 minutes. Division of the real value by the ideal one yields an efficiency index of 41.7%.

The aforementioned methodological con-ceptualisation was put into effect for Poland and for a set of 332 towns and cities of poviat-capital (i.e. ‘county’ seat) rank or higher. 1201 unique connections between adjacent towns were selected, and use was then made of the Google Map map service in determining journey times, this making it possible to cal-culate the shortest journey time between the two points. Relevant data were collected in August 2013, for ‘outward’ and ‘return’ journeys, the dual times obtained then being averaged for the purpose of this study.

A

B

So (AB) = 50 km, vo (AB) = 90 km∙h–1

Sr (AB) = 80 km, vr (AB) = 60 km∙h–1

E = 100% = 41.7%to

tr

Figure 1. Construction of the index of transport and settlement-related time efficiency

The results were mapped in line with an assumption that the ideal speed vo= 90 km·h-1, this representing the upper legal limit for single-lane roads in Poland. This gives rise to a situation, in which most parts of Poland can be seen to be characterised by efficiency indices in the range 40-60%. This is a relatively low value, especially given that some connections can indeed by covered by car at much higher speed, since a system of expressways and motorways is in place. In this context, accessibility achievable by car in Poland would still need to be evaluated as unsatisfactory, notwithstanding consid-erable streams of financing designated for transport inputting from the European Union. It can thus be concluded either that these investments (as matched by domestic fund-ing) are inadequate, or that less than fully effective use is made of them, which is to say in this context that investment priorities do not necessarily coincide with places and routes, at which the greatest efficiency could be achieved were speeds to be raised and flows improved.

Transport- and settlement-related time efficiency is most related to differences in relief and land-use, or else the limitations on the design of routes arising out of these features, as well as restrictions on traffic. Rel-atively the highest values for indices charac-terise the areas of north-eastern Poland with

159Transport- and settlement-related time efficiency of road journeys taken in Poland

Geographia Polonica 2014, 87, 1, pp. 157-160

lower populations, while the least-favourable values are noted for mountainous areas in the south of the country, as well as urban agglomerations.

The obtained results were also compiled on a histogram (Fig. 2). Further calculations show that, for 4.8% of connections studied the index assumes values below 40%, while for a further 15.8% it ranges between 40 and 50%. That leaves 43.7% of connections, in which the efficiency at which those distanc-es are covered is in the range 50-60%, 28.0% for which the index has values of 60-70% and just 7.7% of connections, in which values for the index are over 70%.

The efficiency index presented has many possibilities when it comes to modification and development. It would be suitable for use in relation to different categories of towns and cities, the result being indices oriented hierarchically. There is even the theoretical possibility of a calculations being made for the full matrix of points, though this would be very time-consuming and not always jus-tified, since not all relationships are of the same significance (or weight). Seemingly most justified and of greatest interest from both the cognitive and practical points of view

is the use of the measurements describing relations between two adjacent hierarchical levels of cities and other units of administra-tion, e.g. between the capital city of a coun-try and the capitals of provinces or regions (voivodships in the Polish case), between regional and local cities and between main centres of units at county level (poviats in the Polish case) and local level (seats of author-ity of the gmina units of local administration), etc. A modification of the index from the point of view of distance – on the basis of a gravi-tational model and with use made of 0/1 pos-sibilities to travel via two-lane roads – is pre-sented elsewhere (Śleszyński 2009).

Moreover, alongside the data on real jour-ney times obtained from map services (Goog-le Map, targeo.pl, etc.), there was also a pos-sibility for dedicated models of traffic speed to be made use of. The latter solution – also extending to the calculation of the indices for time efficiency as regards transport and the settlement network – has been applied several times previously in work done by the author in the context of projects implement-ed at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization of the Polish Academy of Scienc-es (Komornicki et al. 2010; Więckowski et al.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

15 19 23 27 31 35 39 43 47 51 55 59 63 67 71 75 79 83 87 91 95 99

Frequency

Percentage of efficiency (step by 1%)

Figure 2. Histogram of indices for road- and settlement-related time efficiency for 1201 analysed con-nections made using transport by car in August 2013

© Przemysław Śleszyński© Geographia Polonica© Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization

Polish Academy of Sciences • Warsaw • 2014

Article first received • November 2013Article accepted • February 2014

160 Przemysław Śleszyński

2012; Komornicki et al. 2013). The idea of the comparison of ideal and real journey times has also gained application in many studies of potential accessibility, including via a com-puter program developed specially for this purpose (cf. information on the road acces-sibility page of the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization of the Polish Academy

of Sciences (IGiPZ PAN): http://www.igipz.pan.pl/accessibility/pl/home.html).

Editors’ note:Unless otherwise stated, the sources of tables and fig-ures are the author(s), on the basis of their own research.

ReferencesKOMORNICKI T., BAŃSKI J., ŚLESZYŃSKI P., ROSIK P., ŚWIĄTEK D., CZAPIEWSKI K.Ł., BEDNAREK-SZCZE-PAŃSKA M., STĘPNIAK M., MAZUR M., WIŚNIEW-SKI R., SOLON B., 2010. Ocena wpływu inwesty-cji infrastruktury transportowej realizowanych w ramach polityki spójności na wzrost kon-kurencyjności regionów (w ramach ewaluacji ex post NPR 2004-2006), Warszawa: Minister-stwo Rozwoju Regionalnego, 131 pp.

KOMORNICKI T., ROSIK P., ŚLESZYŃSKI P., SOLON J., WIŚNIEWSKI R., STĘPNIAK M., CZAPIEWSKI K., GOLI-SZEK S., REGULSKA E., 2013. Impact of the con-struction of motorways and expressways on socio-economic and territorial development

of Poland. Warsaw: Ministry of Regional Devel-opment, 212 pp.

ŚLESZYŃSKI P., 2009. Rozwój nowoczesnej drogowej sieci transportowej a efektywność połączeń głównych ośrodków miejskich (1989-2015). Autostrady, iss. 7, pp. 50-53.

WIĘCKOWSKI M., MICHNIAK D., BEDNAREK-SZCZE-PAŃSKA M., CHRENKA B., IRA V., KOMORNICKI T., ROSIK P., STĘPNIAK M., SZEKELY V., ŚLESZYŃSKI P., ŚWIĄTEK D., WIŚNIEWSKI R., 2012. Polish-Slovak borderland: Transport accessibility and tourism. Prace Geograficzne, vol. 234, Warsaw: Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization of Pol-ish Academy of Sciences, 323 pp.

http://rcin.org.pl

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The example of measurement of efficiency ratio

So (AB) = 50 km, vo (AB) = 90 km∙h–1

Sr (AB) = 80 km, vr (AB) = 60 km∙h–1

E = 100% = 41.7%to

tr

Categories of administrative centers

TRANSPORT- AND SETTLEMENT-RELATEDTIME EFFICIENCY OF ROAD JOURNEYS

TAKEN IN POLAND, 2013by Przemysław Śleszyński

Scale 1:3,000,0000 25 50 75 100 km

Average efficiency of voivodships, and poviat’s capitals

0 50 100 150 200 km

Average weighted efficiency by poviat’s capital(together with adjacent poviats)

© Copyright Przemysław Śleszyński© Copyright Geographia Polonica© Copyright Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, 2014

105%70656055504514

Efficiency ratio

14 45

50

55

60

65 70

Voivodship weighted average

Poland’s capital (Warsaw)

regional (mainly capitals of voivodships)

To cite:Śleszyński P., 2014. Transport- and settlement-related time efficiency of road journeys takenin Poland, 2013. Geographia Polonica, vol. 87, iss. 1, pp. 157-160.

47 50 55 60 64%

105%

Number of population in poviatsor poviat's agglomeration

subregional centers (mainly cities with poviat rights)

local centers (capitals of poviats)

wklejka.indd 291wklejka.indd 291 2014-03-13 10:32:462014-03-13 10:32:46