One of the most common applications of accessibility is in evaluating inequality in access to jobs. A vital factor to be incorporated by accessibility indicators when analyzing job accessibility is the competition for job positions by job seekers; otherwise, the results may be inaccurate or misleading. Despite efforts by researchers to develop accessibility measures that capture job competition, they fail to ensure that these measures are practical and easily interpretable and communicable, which in turn makes planners and policymakers continue to opt for more straightforward measures. In this paper we aim to fill this gap by providing a simple accessibility measure that accounts for competition effects, while remaining practical, intuitive, and highly communicable. The proposed indicator – Balancing Time – is applied to assess the inequality in job accessibility in 160 neighborhoods within the city of Rio de Janeiro, and the results are compared with the most popular indicator used in practice, the cumulative opportunities. The findings suggest that Balancing Time overcomes some of the limitations of cumulative opportunities and that it is a useful tool for planners, particularly in the cities with job opportunities concentrated in central areas. Given its simplicity, Balancing Time is especially relevant in the context of the Global South, where most transport agencies face data limitations and have low skilled technical staff.

可访问性最常见的应用之一是评估工作机会的不平等。在分析工作可访问性时，可访问性指标要纳入的一个重要因素是求职者对工作职位的竞争。否则，结果可能不准确或具有误导性。尽管研究人员做出了努力来制定可捕获工作竞争的无障碍措施，但他们无法确保这些措施切实可行，易于解释和交流，这反过来又使计划者和政策制定者继续选择更为直接的措施。在本文中，我们旨在通过提供一种简单的可访问性措施来弥补这一差距，该措施可解决竞争影响，同时又保持实用，直观和高度可交流的状态。拟议的指标-平衡时间-用于评估里约热内卢市内160个社区的工作可及性不平等，并将结果与​​实践中使用的最受欢迎的指标即累积机会进行比较。研究结果表明，“平衡时间”克服了累积性机会的某些局限性，对于计划者而言，这是一个有用的工具，特别是在工作机会集中在中部地区的城市。鉴于其简单性，“平衡时间”在南半球的情况下尤其重要，在南半球，大多数运输公司都面临数据限制且技术人员技能低下的问题。研究结果表明，“平衡时间”克服了累积性机会的某些局限性，对于计划者而言，这是一个有用的工具，特别是在工作机会集中在中部地区的城市。鉴于其简单性，“平衡时间”在南半球的情况下尤其重要，在南半球，大多数运输公司都面临数据限制且技术人员技能低下的问题。研究结果表明，“平衡时间”克服了累积性机会的某些局限性，对于计划者而言，这是一个有用的工具，特别是在工作机会集中在中部地区的城市。鉴于其简单性，“平衡时间”在南半球的情况下尤其重要，在南半球，大多数运输公司都面临数据限制且技术人员技能低下的问题。