Transport-related Social Exclusion Research Articles

Sufficient access? Activity participation, perceived accessibility and transport-related social exclusion across spatial contexts

AbstractPromoting social inclusion through facilitating the participation in social and economic activities is a central goal of land-use and transport planning. This study examines the relationship between activity participation and experiences of transport-related social exclusion across different spatial accessibility levels in the Netherlands. Using perceived accessibility as an indicator of the benefits derived from spatial opportunities, this paper reveals a weak and non-linear connection between activity participation and satisfaction with accessibility, which becomes negligible at higher participation levels. Even when individuals have low engagement levels, they often report high perceived accessibility, indicating voluntary non-participation. In rural areas with limited local opportunities, constrained participation is more prominent, especially for those with limited mobility options. The weak correlations between participation and experienced benefits from accessibility across diverse spatial contexts emphasize the importance of considering perceived accessibility alongside spatial and activity data in normative debates on determining the sufficiency of accessibility.

"We do not go outside, though We want to": Unequal Access to Public Transport and Transport-Related Social Exclusion of Older Adults in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

This study investigated key physical and social barriers to accessing public transport in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and how the unequal accessibility of transport leads to the social exclusion of older adults. Employing a transport disadvantage perspective and drawing on visual surveys and in-depth interviews, the study explores the context and lived experiences of older adults using public transport in their everyday lives. Difficulty in accessing buses due to overcrowding and congestion, struggling to get on rickshaws due to height, avoiding CNG (an autorickshaw) and cabs due to high fares, disliking Laguna (a small four-wheeler human haulier for carrying passengers) for compact seating arrangements, undesirable behavior, and social attitudes discourage older adults from participating in social activities and produce a feeling of social isolation and exclusion. Hence, more inclusive transport policies are essential in low- and middle-income countries to reduce transport-related social exclusion and improve the well-being of older adults.

Transport-related social exclusion and mobility in developing countries: the South African case

IntroductionTransport-related social exclusion has been studied in many countries, and from many different perspectives. In Africa, however, there is little recent research into the phenomenon, even though African cities tend to have poor transport services, urban sprawl is extensive usually resulting in long travel times and high travel costs, and certain areas experience high levels of crime. By implication, there are several factors that impact the ability of people to access economic and societal opportunities, however these are not well documented. Building on previous work from several authors, this research sought to describe transport-related social exclusion in a large metropolitan area in an emerging economy.MethodsUsing a qualitative methodology, 60 interviews were conducted with City of Johannesburg residents. The data was analyzed using manual thematic and classic content analysis.ResultsThe study found that residents often did not have access to services due to availability, but also that economic, geographic and fear-based exclusion were particularly prevalent in the sample, although there were several other psychological exclusion dimensions, as well as information exclusion.DiscussionThis study is the first recent study in South Africa to consider a wide range of commuters from varying demographic strata, thus providing a novel perspective on TRSE in a major urban area in the country. The study recommends that policy actions be considered, taking into account the minibus taxi industry, which is often overlooked in government policy. TRSE should also be an inherent element in urban (and other) transport planning, as well as take into account the broader societal realities faced by citizens. Future research directions include conducting broader quantitative studies across a variety of urban areas in South Africa, and beyond, to determine specific TRSE dimensions in various urban areas. Policy analysis is also recommended, to determine TRSE policy gaps and align interventions with specific commuter needs.

Travel behaviour differences among people with disabilities: A cluster analysis of accessible taxi users before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

IntroductionPeople with disabilities (PWD) represent the largest minority group in Canada. Many municipalities have implemented paratransit services and subsidized accessible taxi services to provide affordable and equitable transport choices for PWD. However, few scholars have examined who is using these services and how they use them, making it challenging to assess the social impacts of paratransit projects. This study helps to address this knowledge gap through its examination of the differences in travel behaviour among PWD who use accessible taxi services in Toronto, Canada. Specifically, our study engages four research questions: (1) who are accessible taxi service users? (2) how are individuals using accessible taxi services? (3) are there different groups of users based on their travel behaviour? and, (4) how has travel behaviour changed in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic? MethodsThis article employs a cluster analysis to categorize users based on their travel habits and patterns and examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their travel behaviour. Study data includes approximately one million trips made by 40,000 users between June 2018 and June 2021. ResultsThe study identifies five distinct user profiles among accessible taxi users. During the pandemic, there was a significant decrease in the number of PWD using accessible taxi services, particularly for occasional users. Conversely, the percentage of users who made health-related trips increased. Additionally, the findings suggest that PWD who continued or started using accessible taxi services during the pandemic are more likely to be among the most socially disadvantaged groups. ConclusionsThis study can help transit service providers and policymakers better understand the different types of paratransit users and improve services. Additionally, the findings contribute to the existing literature on addressing transport-related social exclusion in Toronto, which is largely focused on population groups with low-income and affordability issues, and not disability.

Without a car and overnight stay, can a visit to a regional centre be an unattainable goal in Slovakia?

People need to travel for work, education, shopping, recreation, healthcare and other services. Because not everyone owns or uses a personal vehicle for various reasons, pressure is created to organise public transport as a service of the public interest, which is supposed to eliminate the potential transport-related social exclusion of inhabitants from territories with poor transport accessibility. The subject of the study is an analysis of the daily accessibility by public transport of 8 regional (administrative) centres in Slovakia (Bratislava, Trnava, Trenčín, Nitra, Banská Bystrica, Žilina, Košice, Prešov) from all municipalities of their self-governing regions (during working days and Sundays). We pay attention to regional comparisons of the identified spatial extent of disadvantaged areas by public transport and the quantity of the affected population with the potential risk of their social exclusion also due to the existing state of public transport organisation in individual regions.

Gendered Dimensions of Transport and Women's Social Exclusion in Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire)

This paper explores the gendered dimensions of transport in Abidjan and how transport dynamics influence women's out-of-home activity participation, leading to their social exclusion. By using a gender-sensitive analysis approach, the research revealed that Abidjan City's transportation system is inadvertently gendered and excludes vulnerable people and women. The findings highlighted transport availability, affordability and reliability as key factors impacting women's opportunities and out-of-home activity participation. And revealed that women's mobility, safety, economic and social well-being are significantly affected.
 
 The research recommends targeted interventions to bridge the gender gap; and particularly to improve women's mobility through safe, reliable and affordable public transport. Gender-sensitive transport planning and policies can be adopted by urban planners and policymakers to promote women's empowerment, social inclusion and safety in Abidjan and surrounding metropolitan areas. These proposals contribute to equitable access to transport services for all citizens specifically women, which is essential for the city's social and economic development. The research addresses therefore a significant gap in transport-related social exclusion studies on African cities, by offering insights to improve transportation planning and policy in similar urban contexts.

Mobility as a Service as an instrument to mitigate transport-related social exclusion

Mobility as a Service as an instrument to mitigate transport-related social exclusion

The potential issues of simulation methods application in the analysis of transport poverty

The statistical methods, neural network-based methods, and simulation methods are applied in accessibility measures, planning of transportation, and periodically in analyses related to transport poverty. This paper focused on the last type of the method – the paper's aim is to identify the potential of simulation methods applied to the problem of transport poverty, whereas the one can be recalled under other terms, e.g., “transport disadvantage”, “transport-related social exclusion”, “accessibility poverty”, “transport affordability”, “transport mobility”, “transport accessibility”, “transport inequality”, etc. All the synonyms were investigated within the panoramic review method to indicate the future agendas and direction of the authors within their own research on transport poverty and accompanying phenomena.

A new approach to transport-related social exclusion in rural Hungary

Accessibility to central settlements is a key issue in rural areas and, in terms of public transport services, both space and time are crucial dimensions. As part of my PhD research, this analysis aims to apply the Zimpel index to evaluate settlement accessibility in rural Hungary. This method is based on a dataset including public transport supply (no. of services in a working day, average journey times) between rural settlements and their microregion centers. The outcome of this analysis is the assessment of how public transport networks adjust to administrative boundaries. Findings may pave the way for a list of policy recommendations for service improvement, the establishment of demand responsive services to increase accessibility in (micro)regions that face unacceptable level of transport related social exclusion.

Does better accessibility help to reduce social exclusion? Evidence from the city of São Paulo, Brazil

Most transport equity and transport-related social exclusion (TRSE) studies assume that increasing accessibility levels lead to increased activity participation and, therefore, a reduction in social exclusion. Although this assumption makes sense from a theoretical point of view, this causal relationship has not yet been validated in practice. Previous studies investigating the accessibility-participation relationship were inconclusive, indicating that increasing accessibility has a limited impact on activity participation levels, if any. Moreover, the existing empirical evidence in the literature in the Global South context is scarce, is merely correlational and fails to infer causality between both variables. The contributions of the paper are threefold. First, (a) to provide a conceptual model of the causal relationship between accessibility, activity participation and risk of transport-related social exclusion (TRSE); second, (b) to summarise the available empirical evidence about the accessibility-activity participation relationship through a systematic literature review; and third, (c) to provide evidence of the causal relationship between accessibility and activity participation levels in a Global South context. Three Poisson regression models associated with an instrumental variable identification strategy were used to assess the causal effect between accessibility and participation in total, mandatory and discretionary activities in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. The three models showed a highly significant, strong correlation between an individual’s accessibility level and their actual participation in total, mandatory and discretionary activities. Models that ignore the possible endogeneity present in the relationship between accessibility and activity participation may underestimate the effect of accessibility. Based on our results, we argue that low accessibility levels may severely restrict individuals’ life chances and add evidence that accessibility has to be an important instrument to support transport policies' decision-making.

How does low income affect older people’s travel practices? Findings of a qualitative case study on the links between financial poverty, mobility and social participation

Financial poverty, mobility and social participation are interrelated. This nexus makes old-age poverty a highly relevant issue in terms of transport-related social exclusion in an ageing society. To understand how financial poverty affects older people’s travel practices and how they cope with their limited financial resources, we conducted qualitative interviews with low-income older people (aged 60 and above) in Ronnenberg (Hanover region, Germany). Although all the respondents have comparably limited financial resources, using a practice theory perspective along the elements of materials, competences and meanings (Shove et al., 2012), we identified three different types of low-income older people by their travel practices: (i) active older people with multifaceted social interactions, (ii) neighbourhood-oriented older people with local interactions and (iii) home-centred older people with few social interactions. From our analysis, we conclude that financial poverty shapes each element of low-income older people’s travel practices and thereby increases the risk of transport-related social exclusion: (i) certain materials have to be financed, which is challenging or even impossible due to financial poverty; (ii) meanings of travel practices are strongly linked to other practices, thus, if (also for financial reasons) no or a limited range of destinations are mentioned, travel practices are restricted in their frequency and distance; and (iii) necessary competences to be mobile and engage in social activities despite low financial means seem to be differentially available or - more cautiously formulated – less often utilised by low-income older people, which may lead to them abandoning travel practices and related social activities.

Impact of Urban Spatial Transformation on the Mobility of Commuters with Different Transportation Modes in China: Evidence from Kunming 2011–2016

Many emerging economies, including China, are undergoing rapid and large-scale urban spatial transformation. Thus, the daily mobility of transportation-disadvantaged groups, especially non-car users, has received increased attention, as these people may experience significant restrictions in their daily activities. Such restrictions raise issues with respect to transport-related social exclusion, which are detrimental to the sustainability of urban transportation systems. Activity participation and time use have been used to measure the spatial barriers and inequalities that travelers face in their daily lives. However, limited research has been conducted on how the daily mobility of different transportation modes has evolved over a longer period relative to urban development. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the activity participation and time use of car travelers in comparison with other transportation mode groups in Kunming from 2011 to 2016, a period of rapid growth in motorization. A three-layer activity structure was used to characterize the hierarchy of activity requirements. Propensity score matching was used to compare the mobility of commuters across different urban periods and transportation modes while controlling several confounding factors. Three conclusions were drawn from the results of the study: First, changes in urban form and transportation system cause residential suburbanization and a considerable increase in private-car and public transportation at the expense of non-motorized transportation modes. Second, the degree of impact of urban space transformation on personal mobility is ranked in descending order of public transit, cycling and walking, e-bike, and cars. Third, the traffic disadvantage of non-car users is obvious, and the mobility gap of commuters with different travel modes tends to widen over time. We discuss the consequences of transport-related social exclusion and highlight directions for future sustainable transportation planning research.

Public transport-disadvantaged rural areas in relation to daily accessibility of regional centre: Case study from Slovakia

The numerous studies demonstrated the close relation between unfavourable access to “goods and services” by public transport (service of general interest) and social exclusion of affected (especially elder, poor, and disabled) people. The problem of “transport-related social exclusion” is closely related to the problem of “transport-disadvantaged areas,” which concerns the spatial organisation of society in terms of transport accessibility and the transport policies of the state, regions, and localities and the range of services provided by transport operators. Rural areas, which inhabitants are isolated or only poorly accessible from the employment possibilities, healthcare, education and cultural facilities in the regional centre, represent serious problems of the balanced and sustainable spatial development of Slovakia. Therefore, the basic aim of the present study is to contribute to an understanding of the extent and geographical distribution of transport disadvantaged areas in economically underdeveloped region of Slovakia - the Banská Bystrica self-governing region - by identification of rural municipalities and areas whose inhabitants are marginalised or excluded from using of the public transport services when travelling to/from regional centre Banská Bystrica. For the identification of negatively perceived “public transport-disadvantaged areas” we use the concept of “daily accessibility” as a decisive criterion for delimitation of territories which suffer from long distances and travel time to the regional centre, and/or insufficient organisation of public transport.

Modal accessibility disparities and transport poverty in the Oslo region

Sufficient accessibility to opportunities, with different transport modes, is an important factor in order to avoid transport-related social exclusion and transport poverty. This paper investigates the social and geographical disparities in accessibility and time competitiveness of public transport in the Oslo region. Both place-based access to employment opportunities and the working population’s individual-specific commutes are measured. The study combines registry data with detailed accessibility metrics and uses descriptive maps and spatial regression models to study transport poverty. The results show that less affluent neighbourhoods suffer from low accessibility and poor time competitiveness of public transport, which is partly related to the suburbanization of poverty. This suggests that the transition to low emission mobility, with restrictions on car use, may be especially burdensome in less affluent neighbourhoods. The findings can help policy makers in securing an equitable transition from car to more sustainable transport modes.

Wykluczenie transportowe i systemowe sposoby jego przezwyciężania

This article aims to identify the instances of transport-related social exclusion in local communities and seeks solutions, to include domestic and foreign concepts. It claims that the inhabitants of local communities have the right to inclusion and explores the ways of achieving it. It considers the need to provide a local regulatory body created by local governments to oversee and coordinate the efforts to grant an equal access to transportation. It also explores the already existing regulatory features at the local level. It is recommended to free the entrepreneurial potential so far restricted by lawmakers convinced that the only solution is to support traditional forms of transportation based established routs and timetables as well as public aid. Without prejudice to such organizational forms, more individualized approached is needed, achievable within the new model of dispersed economy, more commonly known as shared economy. The transportation policy also needs to be more open to new technologies applicable in transportation such as drones and autonomous vehicles.

Understanding transport-related social exclusion through the lens of capabilities approach

ABSTRACT The paper builds on the transport-related social exclusion (TRSE) literature and investigates how the insights provided by the Capability Approach can help to inform inclusive transport planning. To address the literature lack of conceptual clarity, we provided a framework that considers how individuals may be prevented from travelling and accessing valued opportunities and how this may lead to TRSE. Ten different dimensions of TRSE that individuals may experience are suggested. Although some dimensions were already proposed in past work, we contributed to this framework by expanding their scope and proposing a new dimension. The paper concludes that policies aimed at reducing TRSE should be concerned with increasing the capabilities of those in accessibility poverty to a sufficient level that enables individuals’ participation in key opportunities of the society. We identified that not every accessibility measure is suitable for assessing TRSE, and the selection of measures must pay attention to their alignment with the idea of accessibility as a human capability. We recommend that conducting an aggregated analysis may be helpful to identify a suitable accessibility measure and to identify regions at risk of TRSE; however, to have a deep understanding of an individual’s TRSE risk factors, a bottom-up analysis is necessary.

Immigrant settlement patterns, transit accessibility, and transit use

Public transit is immensely important among recent immigrants for enabling daily travel and activity participation. The objectives of this study are to examine whether immigrants settle in areas of high or low transit accessibility and how this affects transit mode share. This is analyzed via a novel comparison of two gateway cities: Sydney, Australia and Toronto, Canada. We find that in both cities, recent immigrants have greater levels of public transit accessibility to jobs, on average, than the overall population, but the geography of immigrant settlement is more suburbanized and less clustered around commuter rail in Toronto than in Sydney. Using logistic regression models with spatial filters, we find significant positive relationships between immigrant settlement patterns and transit mode share for commuting trips, after controlling for transit accessibility and other socio-economic factors, indicating an increased reliance on public transit by recent immigrants. Importantly, via a sensitivity analysis, we find that these effects are greatest in peripheral suburbs and rural areas, indicating that recent immigrants in these areas have more risks of transport-related social exclusion due to reliance on insufficient transit service.

Investigating the Mobility Capabilities and Functionings in Accessing Schools Through Walking: A Quantitative Assessment of Public and Private Schools in São Paulo (Brazil)

Despite being recognised as an appropriate tool to address different dimensions of transport-related social exclusion, the Capability Approach still lacks application within the domain of school transportation. This study conceptualised the vectors of collective functionings and capabilities of preschools and nurseries in São Paulo. From the location of 204 schools, the conditions to access schools through walking were assessed using georeferenced datasets relating to mobility, road safety, and the built environment. The schools were analysed according to their conditions to walk (resources) and the corresponding conversion rates to achieve higher shares of pedestrian trips (functionings), considering the idiosyncrasies between public and private schools. That enabled the estimation of the mobility capabilities, which presented gaps when compared with the functionings. Results corroborated with the class and race disparities in the access to education in Brazil, in which schools with poorer conditions to walk do not have any other options than walking to go to school (e.g. transit or bicycle), requiring investments in the upgrading of the urban infrastructure. On the other hand, schools in wealthier regions present barriers to the fulfilment of active mobility even when the resources are considered sufficient, in which the implementation of educational programmes in recommended.

Assessing transport related social exclusion using a capabilities approach to accessibility framework: A dynamic Bayesian network approach

Accessibility is considered to be a valuable concept that can be used to generate insights on issues related to social exclusion due to limited access to transport options. Recently, researchers have attempted to link accessibility with popular theories of social justice such as Amartya Sen's Capabilities Approach (CA). Such studies have set the theoretical foundations on the way accessibility can be expressed through the CA, however, attempts to operationalise this approach remain fragmented and predominantly qualitative in nature. In this study, a novel framework of expressing accessibility at the level of an individual is proposed, based on the basic elements of the CA. In particular, dynamic Bayesian networks are used to express the causal relationship between capabilities, functionings, personal and environmental characteristics. This is done by introducing informative Dirichlet prior distributions constructed using data from traditional mobility surveys, modelling the transition probabilities with data related to place based characteristics and defining an observation model from unlabelled mobility data and places of interest (POI). We demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed framework by assessing the equality levels and their link to transport related social exclusion of different population groups in London, using unlabelled, service provider generated mobility data.

Planning transport for social inclusion: An accessibility-activity participation approach

Social equity is increasingly becoming an important objective in transport planning and project evaluation. This paper provides a framework and an empirical investigation in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) examining the links between public transit accessibility and the risks of social exclusion, simply understood as the suppressed ability to conduct daily activities at normal levels. Specifically, we use a large-sample travel survey to present a new transport-geography concept termed participation deserts, neighbourhood-level clusters of lower than expected activity participation. We then use multivariate models to estimate where, and for whom, improvements in transit accessibility will effectively increase activity participation and reduce risks of transport-related social exclusion. Our results show that neighbourhoods with high concentrations of low-income and zero-car households located outside of major transit corridors are the most sensitive to having improvements in accessibility increase daily activity participation rates. We contend that transit investments providing better connections to these neighbourhoods would have the greatest benefit in terms of alleviating existing inequalities and reducing the risks of social exclusion. The ability for transport investments to liberate suppressed activity participation is not currently being predicted or valued in existing transport evaluation methodologies, but there is great potential in doing so in order to capture the social equity benefits associated with increasing transit accessibility.