The article discusses various approaches to the definition and understanding of transport accessibility in general and transport accessibility of settlements in particular, existing in the scientific literature. For the first time, we have analyzed how the issue of insufficient transport accessibility of settlements is presented in federal strategic planning documents. The paper presents the author’s views on this economic and geographical category, and proposes approaches to creating a system of indicators, which could reflect transport accessibility level using various transport modes. The analysis of normative legal acts of strategic planning makes it possible to assess the importance of the issue at the country level: there is still a large proportion of rural settlements, mainly in the northern regions of the country, that are not provided with year-round transport connectivity with a network of highways, railway stations or have water connections. Although ways to solve this issue are being discussed at the state level, in our opinion, the proposed measures are insufficient, since specific examples of unstable year-round communication of a settlement may require a differentiated approach to improving transport accessibility. Strategic planning documents could play a more important role if a unified methodological approach and a system of transport accessibility indicators are developed, which are currently missing. Clarification of the criterion of accessibility by time and differentiation of accessibility for people and for cargo delivery are important elements of a unified methodological approach. In addition, it is important to clarify the category of “settlement”. We have formulated a proposal to reflect the problem in federal strategic planning documents. There should not be a single settlement in the country in which there is no access by paved road, either by plane or by water transport, with priority of providing access by road
Keywords
strategic planning, population, territory, settlement, transport accessibility, year-round communication, transportation of passengers, transport network