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Beyond the Boundary: New Insights from Inside the Space-Time Prism

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Space-Time Integration in Geography and GIScience

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Abstract

The space-time prism is a key concept in time geography; it demarcates all locations that a mobile object can occupied given origin and destination anchors, the earliest departure time from origin, the latest arrival time at destination, and the maximum travel velocity. The prism boundary has been widely applied to measure the limits on mobility and accessibility given individual’s spatial and temporal constrains. However, little attention has been paid to the interior of the prism. This chapter provides some novel insights into the internal structure of the prism, which can improve not only the theoretical understanding of the space-time prism but also practical applications. Two properties of prism interior are demonstrated in detail: the probability to visit each location within the prism interior and the velocity profile associated with each location. To illustrate the potentials for applying these properties, two example implications are provided: a modified utility-based accessibility benefit measure and a new measure for the potential environmental costs of accessibility.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Strictly speaking from a physical perspective, the classic space-time prism is determined in part by a maximum “speed” (a scalar value) not a “velocity” (a vector with direction and magnitude). However, we will use the term “velocity” for consistency with the time geography literature.

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Acknowledgements

An award from the National Science Foundation (BCS – 1224102) supported this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Ying Song & Harvey J. Miller

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  1. Ying Song
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  2. Harvey J. Miller
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Correspondence to Ying Song .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA

    Mei-Po Kwan

  2. Association of American Geographers, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

    Douglas Richardson

  3. Department of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China

    Donggen Wang

  4. Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Chenghu Zhou

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Song, Y., Miller, H.J. (2015). Beyond the Boundary: New Insights from Inside the Space-Time Prism. In: Kwan, MP., Richardson, D., Wang, D., Zhou, C. (eds) Space-Time Integration in Geography and GIScience. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9205-9_12

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