Unfolding time, race and class inequalities to access leisure

Abstract

The access to leisure activities is an important element to understand the potential participation and integration of individuals in the society. Despite its importance, urban planners in large urban centers in developing countries seek to prioritize access to mandatory activities. This study quantifies the accessibility to leisure and its inequalities in the municipality of São Paulo, considering the opening hours of leisure opportunities and racial and class population groups. Tracking data from buses and TomTom speed profile were used in the public and the private transport networks, respectively, to analyze and compare accessibility to parks and cultural equipment. A multitemporal analysis was performed to better understand the fluctuation of accessibility to leisure through different hours considering the opening hours of parks and cultural equipment. The population was stratified into four groups according to race and class (higher black, higher white, lower black, and lower white) to perform accessibility inequalities analysis. Results show that accessibility to leisure is higher for private transport users, it decreases from the central to the peripheral areas, and it changes significantly during the day due to traffic conditions, transit supply, and leisure opportunities opening hours. The Lorenz curves, Gini, and the Palma coefficients showed a highly unequal level of accessibility to leisure for different population groups, with the low-black population having the lowest level of leisure accessibility. Our findings may support policy makers in designing strategies to provide more spatial equity in the access to leisure opportunities.