Ten Years of School Closures and Consolidations in Hamilton, Canada and the Impact on Multimodal Accessibility

Reducing motorized travel and increased active travel are top priorities for many communities. However, these goals are challenged by pressures that make governments reluctant to re/invest in public services, including schools. Public school boards are increasingly asked to do more with less, a directive often accomplished by closing and consolidating schools. Such policies can reduce the proximity of schools for many students, thereby limiting opportunities for active travel. In this paper, we examine the City of Hamilton, a mid-sized city in Ontario, Canada, which saw numerous elementary schools closures between 2011 and 2021. Our analysis evaluates how school closures and consolidations reshaped school-seat accessibility (the potential to spatially interact) for elementary school students, both by motorized and active travel. We use spatial availability, a singly-constrained multimodal measure of spatial accessibility. This method’s proportional allocation mechanisms allows for consistent comparisons in accessibility between time periods. The analysis is conducted at the parcel level, taking into account the on-the-ground-capacity (OTGC) of schools and observed home-to-school trip lengths for motorized and active modes. Overall, our findings reveal a decline in school spatial availability in the city. While the school closure and consolidation policy pursued by the province may have achieved cost savings in facility operation and maintenance, it imposed ongoing costs on students, families, and communities through reduced opportunities for physical activity and entrenched reliance on motorized travel.