Existing methodology on food accessibility predominately focuses on on-premise services, that is, dine-in and shopping at stores, which assumes a linear distance decay property (the closer, the higher accessibility). Access to delivery services is fundamentally different from that to on-premise stores. Stores with close proximity (within an inner boundary) are less desirable for delivery due to delivery fees, and there is an outer boundary beyond which deliveries are unavailable, both challenging the assumption of increasing impediment with distance. These two boundaries form a donut shape for delivery services. We propose a modified 2-step floating catchment area method that incorporates the donut shape, accounts for both demand and supply, and examines the diversity of food options. Using Seattle as a case study, our results show that delivery services increase restaurant and fast-food accessibility in areas where there is already good accessibility (e.g., downtown Seattle for restaurants and South Seattle for fast-food). Given South Seattle is where low-income and low-access households concentrate, the increase in accessibility to fast-food may not be desired. Interestingly, with delivery services, more low-income or low-access households (those who live far from grocery stores) have better accessibility to fresh produce from grocery stores compared to the rest of the population. And the newly created Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) online program appears to miss low-access households. These findings have important implications for policymakers and stakeholders seeking to improve food accessibility in urban areas through delivery services.
This content will become publicly available on July 29, 2025
Limited access to food stores is often linked to higher health risks and lower community resilience. Socially vulnerable populations experience persistent disparities in equitable food store access. However, little research has been done to examine how people's access to food stores is affected by natural disasters. Previous studies mainly focus on examining potential access using the travel distance to the nearest food store, which often falls short of capturing the actual access of people. Therefore, to fill this gap, this paper incorporates human mobility patterns into the measure of actual access, leveraging large‐scale mobile phone data. Specifically, we propose a novel enhanced two‐step floating catchment area method with travel preferences (E2SFCA‐TP) to measure accessibility, which extends the traditional E2SFCA model by integrating actual human mobility behaviors. We then analyze people's actual access to grocery and convenience stores across both space and time under the devastating winter storm Uri in Harris County, Texas. Our results highlight the value of using human mobility patterns to better reflect people's actual access behaviors. The proposed E2SFCA‐TP measure is more capable of capturing mobility variations in people's access, compared with the traditional E2SFCA measure. This paper provides insights into food store access across space and time, which could aid decision making in resource allocation to enhance accessibility and mitigate the risk of food insecurity in underserved areas.
more » « less- Award ID(s):
- 2324616
- PAR ID:
- 10532107
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Risk Analysis
- Volume:
- 2024
- ISSN:
- 0272-4332
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1-14
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- equitable access, floating catchment area, food stores, human mobility, natural disaster
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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