‘De Alguna Manera, Llegas,’ A Geographic Information Systems Study of Public Transit Accessibility for Precarious Settlements in Buenos Aires, Argentina Item Type text; Electronic Thesis Authors Titlow, Kyle James Sorlie Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 07/10/2021 15:49:26 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/628096 ‘DE ALUGUNA MANERA, LLEGAS’ : A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS STUDY OF PUBLIC TRANSIT ACCESSIBILITY FOR PRECARIOUS SETTLEMENTS IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA by Kyle James Sorlie Titlow ____________________________________ Copyright © Kyle James Sorlie Titlow 2018 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY AND DEVELOPMENT In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS WITH A MAJOR IN GEOGRAPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2018 1 Acknowledgements This project would not have been possible without the help and support of an exceptionally large group of people. I especially want to thank my three advisers and committee members, Dr. David Plane, Dr. Daoqin Tong, and Dr. Kristina Currans, for their help shaping my topic, fine-tuning my methods, directing my literature review, and having the mental fortitude to actually read and edit this entire thesis. I very grateful to Jorge Blanco, director of the geography department in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at the University of Buenos Aires. Jorge provided me with a topic, equipped me with geospatial data, provided me with literature on Buenos Aires’ transportation geography, graciously responded to a litany of questions over e- mail, and drove me to visit one of the asentamientos in Pilar. I must additionally thank Marcelo Lascano-Kedic for meeting me to discuss potential research topics (all while walking twenty-two kilometers through downtown Buenos Aires). I am also grateful to the anonymous GIS aficionados at CataroMap, who were critical in the acquisition and projection of all the geospatial layers pertaining to the asentamientos in this thesis. I am thankful to my host mother, Silvia Doña, who let me stay with her during my visit to Buenos Aires and La Plata during July and August 2017 and subsequently served as my unofficial, WhatsApp-based Spanish-to-English translator. A similar role was also filled by Rocio Suarez, a friend from my previous stay in Argentina. Credit must also be given to Carla Cafasso, who unknowingly supplied me with the title of this thesis. Finally, I greatly appreciated on-the-ground emotional support from the extended members of my host family: Martina, Irma, Ramón, Mia, Lola, Luna, and Pablito Escobar. 3 At the University of Arizona, I am greatly appreciative of the technical, methodological, epistemological, social-critical, emotional, and Sonoran hot dog-related support received from my fellow graduate students at the School of Geography and Development . I want to give special thanks to Forest Carter (“Don Saguro”), Sar ah Frederick (“Little Sarah”), Rebecca Patterson -Markowitz (“BPM”), Leland Sutter (Nickname TBD) , Patrick Murphy (“Real Patrick”), Dino Kadich (“Brother Dino”) , Surabhi Karambelkar (“Big Surb”), Monalee Teves, and #TeamKnucklesTheCat. Help was also received, in multiple different forms, from a wide array of other professors, faculty, and graduate students here at the university, both in geography and from other departments across campus: planning, political science, economics, natural resources, and civil engineering. Lastly, I must give thanks to the Tinker Foundation, whose gracious travel scholarship, through the University of Arizona’s Department of Latin American Studies, allowed me to visit Buenos Aires during July and August of 2017. Finally, I must thank my web of family and friends, whose long-distance support was nonetheless valuable during my two years as a graduate student. Late-night phone calls, Skype sessions, and semester-break visits with Tejas Aralere, Katelyn Frazier, Casey Lardner, Carrie Sheeler, Kyle Barron, Marco Millones, Akshay Deverakonda, Henrique Silva Passos-Neto, Mark Titcomb, (Mr.) Ryan Welborn, Andrew Douglass, Max Bartier, Sam Moffit, Jamie Palumbo, and Nitin Iyengar provided me with the critical emotional, mental, and (in some cases) technical support needed to complete this thesis. I likewise owe much to my family in San Diego and Los Angeles, with special thanks to Madison Dingsdale and Cindi Knapton. Having such wonderful, supportive family members nearby played a more significant role in helping me to finish than I will 4 probably ever realize. Finally (and I mean it this time), I want to thank my parents, who have always been supportive of my interests (however bizarre, embarrassing, obsessive- compulsive, or transportation-centric) and provided me with countless opportunities to pursue those passions, no matter the physical, emotional, monetary, or spatial-geographic cost. The last two years have undoubtedly been some of the most challenging of my life so far, and I do not think I would have made it through —all while still learning so much about myself, my interests, and my future goals —without your persistent encouragement. 5 Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ............................................................................. 7 TABLES ............................................................................................................ 7 FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 8 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. 14 CHAPTER 1: Introduction ............................................................................................ 16 CHAPTER 2: Political Geography of Metropolitan Buenos Aires ............................... 22 CHAPTER 3: Transportation Infrastructure and Spatial Mobility in Buenos Aires ..... 35 CHAPTER 4: A Historical Geography of the Asentamientos ....................................... 44 CHAPTER 5: Accessibility, Literature Review and Applications ................................ 75 CHAPTER 6: Methodologies ........................................................................................ 90 SECTION 6A: Google Maps Distance Matrix API .......................................... 90 SECTION 6B: API Parameter for Origins ........................................................ 101 SECTION 6C: API Parameter for Destinations ................................................ 117 SECTION 6D: API Parameters for Mode, Time, and Day ............................... 128 SECTION 6E: Difference-of-Means Tests ....................................................... 132 CHAPTER 7: Results and Discussion .......................................................................... 136 SECTION 7A: All case studies ......................................................................... 136 SECTION 7B: Quilmes .................................................................................... 145 SECTION 7C: La Matanza ............................................................................... 152 SECTION 7D: Pilar .......................................................................................... 161 CHAPTER 8: Conclusions ........................................................................................... 172 APPENDIX A: Time travel maps, All case studies ..................................................... 178 APPENDIX B: Time travel maps, Quilmes ................................................................. 184 APPENDIX C: Time travel maps, La Matanza ............................................................ 190 APPENDIX D: Time travel maps, Pilar ....................................................................... 196 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................ 202 6 List of Figures and Tables Tables 2.1 Summary statistics for the departments of Agglomerated Buenos Aires 29 (AGBA) and the INDEC agglomeration categories (2010) 3.1 Transportation infrastructure by INDEC agglomeration category (2018) 36 3.2 Geographical distribution of trips in Agglomerated Buenos Aires, 40 by region of origin and destination (2010) 3.3 Characteristics of income quintiles 41 developed from the ENMODO origin/destination survey (2009) 3.4 Travel preferences of income quintiles, 42 as revealed from the ENMODO origin/destination survey (2009) 4.1 Summary statistics for the asentamientos in Agglomerated Buenos Aires 61 (AGBA), 2013 4.2 Distances to common activity sites from the asentamientos of 63 Agglomerated Buenos Aires (AGBA), 2013 4.3 Geographic location of quotidian activities undertaken 66 by the residents of Agglomerated Buenos Aires’ asentamientos , 2006 4.4 Distances to common activity sites from the asentamientos of 68 Agglomerated Buenos Aires (AGBA), 2006 4.5 Share of all trips by travel mode in Agglomerated Buenos Aires 70 (AGBA), 1972-2007 6.1 Summary statistics of the departments of Agglomerated Buenos Aires 106 (AGBA), as they relate to and overlap with the asentamientos (2013) 6.2 Summary statistics of three case study departments, by overlap with their 109 respective asentamientos (2013)