Application of a CAD-based Accessibility Model

Geographical understanding of accessibility usually proceeds macroscopically, from the vantage point of a remote and detached observer. Total minutes of telephone communication between a set of countries, presented as a network map, would be one form such knowledge might take. Frequency of flights between a set of cities would be another. While the macroscopic perspective provides a good sense of the overall degree of interaction between places and how such interaction varies spatially, it can obscure the way communication and transportation are incorporated in individual lives in real places, and hide much that is of interest from a cultural, social, or psychological viewpoint. This is perhaps even more true in the information age than in previous ages.