Polycentrism and the accessibility of public facilities to the population. The example of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and Belval

In this paper, we examine the theoretical impacts of a polycentric spatial planning strategy on the general and potential accessibility of public facilities to the population. We then test this using the concrete example of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and Belval. To do so, we develop an approach that links a time-distance road matrix between all the localities and a comprehensive dataset of public facilities at two different dates: 2005 and 2015. This allows us to determine that the average and theoretical accessibility, outside of peak hours, shows a gain of 9%, after relocation of a number of facilities to Belval.