ACCESSIBILITY/URBAN CONNECTIVITY IN

BALTIC SEA REGIONBVV15

Ina Ludriksone Oleg Andreev

Rita Puriņa

Introduction 11 countries in Baltic Sea Region

80 cities with > 100 000 inhabitants selected for monitoring accessibility trends

Accessibility Potential by Air

* Locational advantage of a city or region

* No new signicifant airport hub

Accessibility Potential by Air

The biggest airports from sample cities where we can see trend that all of them have developed during nine year period by increasing numbers of served passengers.

Accessibility Potential by Road

The countries in the Baltic Sea Region have high-capacity road infrastructure, such as motorways, permitting connections among the main metropolitan areas.

Reliable public transport makes the cities work. A reliable and extensive public transport network not only makes things work, but increases the quality of life in the cities.

In all cities, public transport is well developed and well organised. Buses, trams, subways and commuter trains serve passengers in the Baltic Metropoles.

Accessibility Potential by Rail This indicator is defined as the number of people that can be reached by train, where the activeness of destinations is defined by their population size. Rail Baltica connects Baltic countries with central and western Europe.

Fast and modern trains serve both passengers and cargo and there is an ongoing heavy investment in rail systems, which is steadily improving cross-border infrastructure and facilities

Rail system is improving thus recently launched high-speed Allegro train shortens the travel time between St Petersburg and Helsinki from 5.5 hours to only 3 hours.

Multi-modal Accessibility Potential

Multimodal accessibility potential is defined as the number of people that can be reached by all modes (road, rail, flight).

Where the attractivity of destinations is defined by their population size, subject to the travel time to reach them. The individual car, train and plane travel times are summed up as logsum, to derive the overall multimodal accessibility potential.

Maritime routes and ship traffic in theBaltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is one of the maritime areas with the densest traffic in the world.

Both the number and the size of ships have been growing.

There are many short-haul, cross-border ferry connections that allow the mobility of persons and the integration of regional workforce markets.

Ferry connections are also used by trucks to transport goods across borders.

Maritime transportation is well developed for longer journeys, essential for connecting nearby cities and regions.

Properties of maritime traffic by ship type

Cargo Vessels

Tankers

Passenger Vessels

Other

Border Crossings

The number of vehicles passing the border as a function of the average annual daily traffic (AADT) approach the border control point

The average truck waiting times for border control procedures, differentiated by direction

Border Crossings

Average truck waiting times at borders

Internet Access The number of households with internet access in percent of the total

number of households

Internet users per 100 peopleCountry Internet users per 100

people in 2005 Internet users per 100

people in 2014 Changes, % Belarus 14.0 59.0 76.3%

Denmark 82.7 96.0 13.9% Estonia 61.5 84.2 27.0% Finland 74.5 92.4 19.4%

Germany 68.7 86.2 20.3% Latvia 46.0 75.8 39.3%

Lithuania 36.2 72.1 49.8% Norway 82.0 96.3 14.8% Poland 38.8 66.6 41.7% Russia 15.2 70.5 78.4%

Sweden 84.4 92.5 8.8%

Households with access to internet

Conclusions

The Baltic Sea Region is a economic hub which is well internationally connected with the whole European continent, connected to various airports and many airlines serving destinations in Europe as well as key destinations in North America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East

The region as a whole has a modern and technologically advanced air, sea, road and rail transport system

Based on our analysis, we can conclude that it is a world class economic zone, that will bring profit to any entrepreneur as the area comprises all the key of success elements of a specific investment

Conclusions Out of 80 sample cities, there are 56 city with airport in it, but 24 of sample

cities have no airport. In existing airports there are rapid development from year 2005 until year 2014

Internet access in regions gives high level of importance in the future for increasing people knowledge, time saving and international market opportunities

Opened borders speed up work for the logistics environment by saving time and giving opportunity to earn more money for each region faster. It’s a positive movement for financial process

Biggest changes in accessibility have occurred in Scandinavian part of BSR during 2001 till 2014

ACCESSIBILITY/URBAN CONNECTIVITY IN

BALTIC SEA REGIONBVV15

Ina Ludriksone Oleg Andreev

Rita Puriņa