Data lab · Status: In development

Access to public services

A public-data study of walking access from populated neighbourhood cells to registered primary-school locations in Dordrecht.

Last updated 24 August 2026

Purpose

This project examines how long it takes people to walk to public services. The first pilot uses registered primary-school locations in Dordrecht. Later versions may cover other types of service and changes such as a location opening, closing or moving.

Dordrecht pilot

The analysis starts with 1,666 populated grid cells from Statistics Netherlands. Each cell is 100 metres square. The model follows the shortest available route through the OpenStreetMap walking network at 4.8 kilometres per hour.

Map of Dordrecht. Squares mark cells with at least two separate BAG building components associated with registered primary-school locations within a twenty-minute walk. Diamonds mark cells with one component and crosses mark cells with none. Circles show registered destinations. — Number of separate BAG building components associated with registered primary-school locations reachable within twenty minutes from each populated cell. Reference date 23 August 2026. The map does not show whether a location is open, has capacity or is suitable for a particular pupil.

Text alternative for the map
BAG building components within twenty minutes	Populated cells
Two or more separate components	1,540
One component	66
No component	60

The location registers leave two cases open to interpretation. I repeated the calculation with three defensible treatments of those cases. All three produced the same twenty-minute result shown above. Results at ten minutes were more sensitive, so I do not present that shorter threshold as a settled finding.

Method

The pilot combines four public sources:

RIO supplies the dated education registrations. BAG identifies the physical address and its related building components. Administrative records attached to the same BAG building component are therefore not counted as separate alternatives. Each populated grid cell and eligible destination is connected to the walking network before the shortest route is calculated.

Limitations

This is a geographical baseline based on public registers, not a live service directory. It does not establish opening hours, capacity, admissions, quality, safety or operational availability. A grid cell is also an approximation of where residents begin their journey. The locations have been reconciled against the registers, but they have not all been checked through field visits.

The exact source snapshots, versions and calculation record are retained in the separate project workspace. They are not published on this website.