Exploring sustainable accessibility through multimodal networks: Assessing healthy food access in Montreal

Abstract

• High-resolution accessibility modelling reveals persistent food access gaps at short time thresholds in Montreal. • Cycling greatly reduces disparities in access to healthy food relative to walking-only scenarios. • Combining active travel with transit maximizes access to healthy food. • Land use and transportation integration are crucial to addressing spatial disparities in food access. Equitable access to essential amenities is crucial for sustainable urban areas, yet achieving it remains challenging in North American cities characterized by car-centric development and sprawling urban patterns. This paper investigates how multimodal transportation networks reshape access to “Healthy Food Establishments (HFEs)” in Montreal. Using high-resolution block-level data, verified HFE locations, and multimodal routing with the r5r engine, we model three accessibility scenarios: walking-only, cycling-only, and combined active travel plus transit. Accessibility is measured through a cumulative-opportunity and gravity-based metric, capturing temporal thresholds and the variety of destinations. Our analysis reveals significant disparities in food accessibility under walking-only conditions, with nearly half of Montreal residents lacking adequate access within a strict 10-minute timeframe. Cycling considerably improves accessibility, yet the highest levels of equitable access are only achieved through integrated multimodal scenarios that combine active transportation and public transit. Our results underscore the importance of planning multimodal transit nodes that facilitate integrated trip-chaining, emphasizing the need for policy interventions that prioritize continuous, low-stress cycling infrastructure, high-frequency transit services, and clustered essential amenities to bridge accessibility gaps in underserved areas.

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