The decade of the big push to roads in Poland: Impact on improvement in accessibility and territorial cohesion from a policy perspective

•We apply the potential accessibility model to evaluate the road investments in Poland.•We combine the regional, national and international dimension in a LAU-2 resolution.•The study juxtaposes transport and spatial policies.•The role of EU-supported sections was decisive in the improvement in accessibility.•At the international level, regional disparities in accessibility were decreased.

Accessibility improvement and territorial cohesion are general policy goals that are widely accepted, irrespective of the level of decision-making. The evaluation of changes in accessibility, its spatial distribution and the impact on territorial cohesion is of exceptional importance in the new member states. We propose ex-post evaluation of changes in the road potential accessibility of Polish municipalities in the first decade of Polish EU membership. The paper juxtaposes European and national transport and spatial policies and follows up with an empirical analysis carried out at different geographical levels, including the international (European), national and regional. Particular attention is paid to assessment of the impact of projects supported by EU funds, which play a crucial role in the improvement of accessibility, both at the national and international level. However, the positive effect of new roads on territorial cohesion is visible only at the international level, while at the national level regional accessibility disparities remain largely untouched after a decade of the ‘big push′ to roads in Poland.