Spatiotemporal analysis of the distribution of urban facilities in terms of accessibility

This article develops a method for analysing the distribution of urban facilities in terms of accessibility. The method treats facility accessibility in the spatiotemporal dimension, as it depends on both spatial and temporal factors, that is, the location and opening hours of facilities. The distribution of facility accessibility is evaluated by several measures indicating the extent of concentration with respect to accessibility in the spatiotemporal dimension. The measures are standardised and evaluated in a statistical framework by means of comparison with spatial, temporal and spatiotemporal random distributions of facility accessibility. The method is applied to analysis of the spatiotemporal distribution of coffee shops in Tokyo, Japan. The results revealed interesting patterns, which are helpful for analysis of marketing strategies of coffee shop chains. Copyright RSAI 2005.