The high penetration of e-activities (e-working, e-shopping, e-leisure) has empowered people to overcome space-time constraints in daily routines, and this trend is growing. Accordingly, new knowledge is sorely needed to incorporate e-activities into accessibility planning and to define new conceptualizations, methods, and quantifiers that recognize digital and in-person accessibility in real life. This paper introduces the framework of “augmented accessibility” and identifies space-time thresholds in which e-activities are more competitive than in-person activities. By being aware of these thresholds, specific policies could be adopted for encouraging people to save travel time and allocate it to reach other in-person destinations, thereby increasing their overall spatial accessibility. At methodological level, time geography concepts and elasticity analysis are combined, estimating space-time thresholds for six simulated spatial settings: from polycentric and compact cases to sprawled and monocentric cases. The results indicate that e-activities are more competitive in sprawled settings and emphasize the relevance of travel directionality (from opportunity hubs to low-density places) for retaining high spatial accessibility levels and increased travel distances. The social and policy implications of space-time thresholds are discussed for each simulated spatial setting by estimating and comparing critical travel distances for different transport modes. The paper closes by discussing aspects related to practical operationalization of the proposed framework, its communicability, interpretability, and usability.

中文翻译：

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当电子活动满足空间可达性时：模拟空间设置的理论框架和实证时空阈值


电子活动（电子工作、电子购物、电子休闲）的高渗透率使人们能够克服日常生活中的时空限制，而且这种趋势正在增长。因此，迫切需要新的知识来将电子活动纳入无障碍规划，并定义新的概念化、方法和量化器，以识别现实生活中的数字和面对面无障碍。本文介绍了“增强可访问性”的框架，并确定了电子活动比面对面活动更具竞争力的时空阈值。通过了解这些阈值，可以采取具体政策来鼓励人们节省旅行时间并将其分配给到达其他面对面的目的地，从而提高他们的整体空间可达性。在方法论层面，将时间地理概念和弹性分析相结合，估计六种模拟空间设置的时空阈值：从多中心和紧凑情况到蔓延和单中心情况。结果表明，电子活动在广阔的环境中更具竞争力，并强调出行方向性（从机会中心到低密度场所）的相关性，以保持高空间可达性水平和增加出行距离。通过估计和比较不同交通方式的临界行驶距离，讨论了每个模拟空间设置的时空阈值的社会和政策影响。本文最后讨论了与拟议框架的实际操作、其可通信性、可解释性和可用性相关的方面。