Job Accessibility

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Why we love it

Maps of accessibility show the distribution of people in a city and the transportation networks around them. We love how this map puts a destination into the story: jobs. It’s no longer just about how close you are to a transit stop, but rather how many jobs you might access once you get on that bus, subway, or train. How many jobs are within your reach? How far do you have to travel to get to the workplace? 

Why it works

The purple-to-green contrast instantly pin-points areas of high or low job accessibility. You can also see the subtle transition zone of everything in between. The juxtaposition of the transit access map with the job accessibility map adds a nice touch by providing detailed transit locations and walkable distances to each stop. It also illustrates how transit connects people to what they need. In this case it’s jobs.

Important steps

  • Download database files

    Download job accessibility shapefiles for each of the 46 metropolitan areas. Append all shapefiles into a geodatabase.
    Data download from U of M
    Job accessibility shapefiles

  • Evaluate colour distribution

    Create symbology using graduated colours. Evaluate how the colour distribution across those class breaks conveys concentrations of transit-accessible jobs.

  • Choose and blend colours

    Choose complementary colours that blend well into one another and clarify the high-to-low story.

  • Zoom in for improvements

    Once the map is working well at the target scale (in this case 1:1,155,000), zoom to each surrounding web scale to identify any needed improvements at that scale.

  • Share your map

    Create a map service (cached tiles), make it public, and share as a web map, app, or story map.
    Create a map service
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Requirements

  • Data and software

    Shapefiles from U of M Accessibility Observatory, 2010 US Census blocks, US Census Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics, 2011 Origin-Destination Employment Statistics, OpenStreetMap, and General Transit Feed Specification data. Software used: ArcGIS Desktop.

  • Analysis

    After downloading the open-source shapefiles from the Accessibility Observatory, we needed to decide what symbology would best convey the detail and variation of the jobs accessible throughout the city.

  • Time

    It takes one day to download the data, create a ModelBuilder tool that appends all 46 cities to a geodatabase, run the tool, create the symbology, and cache the map.
    ModelBuilder tool
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Tips and tricks

  • Compliment with colour

    In the type of mapping where you are most interested in extreme values, use complementary colours with neutral hues in between. This ensures stunning and effective cartography.

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Resources

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Jennifer D. Bell, storyteller and mapmaker

Map Author

Jennifer D. Bell

As a storyteller and mapmaker, I strive to find the art in cartography. My job is to create innovative, thought-provoking, and eye-catching maps telling stories people are interested in - stories, hopefully, fostering positive changes in our society.

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