Transport accessibility issue of settlements in federal strategic planning documents

The article discusses various approaches to the defi nition and understanding of transport accessibility in general and transport accessibility of settlements in particular, existing in the scientifi c literature. For the fi rst time, we have analyzed how the issue of insuffi cient transport accessibility of settlements is presented in federal strategic planning documents. The paper presents the author’s views on this economic and geographical category, and proposes approaches to creating a system of indicators, which could refl ect transport accessibility level using various transport modes. The analysis of normative legal acts of strategic planning makes it possible to assess the importance of the issue at the country level: there is still a large proportion of rural settlements, mainly in the northern regions of the country, that are not provided with year-round transport connectivity with a network of highways, railway stations or have water connections. Although ways to solve this issue are being discussed at the state level, in our opinion, the proposed measures are insuffi cient, since specifi c examples of unstable year-round communication of a settlement may require a diff erentiated approach to improving transport accessibility. Strategic planning documents could play a more important role if a unifi ed methodological approach and a system of transport accessibility indicators are developed, which are currently missing. Clarifi cation of the criterion of accessibility by time and diff erentiation of accessibility for people and for cargo delivery are important elements of a unifi ed methodological approach. In addition, it is important to clarify the category of “settlement”. We have formulated a proposal to refl ect the problem in federal strategic planning documents. There should not be a single settlement in the country in which there is no access by paved road, either by plane or by water transport, with priority of providing access by road.