Social Research in Transport (SORT) Clearinghouse

Transport and society

Glenn Lyons — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:46:55 PDT

In 1963, the Buchanan Report in the UK advocated a combination of new road capacity, improved public transport and traffic restraint as a means to tackle congestion. Forty years on, and the advice from many transport experts remains the same. However, the scale and complexity of the problems associated with a mobility-dependent society have grown. The need for politicians to make tough but realistic policy decisions on transport is now becoming unavoidable. They must confront the realities of living with the car as must the general public. Policymakers now also have social well-being and sustainable development moving higher on their agendas alongside transport. Against such a backdrop, the paper makes the case for transport research, policy and practice to acknowledge more fully the inherent links between transport and society. It argues that greater recognition and understanding of such links is crucial to confronting the present realities. Transport does not merely serve society: it shapes society, as in turn society shapes transport. The future of each is dependent on the other, and this fact must be recognized. The paper advocates in turn that the transport profession must move from its heartlands in engineering and economics also to embrace more fully such disciplines as sociology and psychology. A factual picture of the many facets of present-day society is presented and the implications for travel demand are discussed. Through considering phenomena such as social norms and habitual behaviour, it is then argued that the travel choices and behaviour of individuals are not simply a matter of economic optimization. This points to the need for decision-makers to be furnished with better evidence about the transport problems faced and the potential efficacy of measures that might be taken. Discussion of public attitudes and the role of the media are included in the context of assessing how politicians can be encouraged and supported in their implementation of realistic but unpopular policies. Evidence and experience within the paper are UK based, although many of the issues and arguments apply world wide.

Social exclusion: What can public transport offer?

Janet Stanley — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:46:53 PDT

A new workshop on ‘Social exclusion: What can public transport offer?’ was introduced in the Thredbo 10 program. The workshop examined the concept of social exclusion in a transport context, looking briefly at the history and comprehensiveness of the term for social policy in transport. Other concepts, such as well-being and social capital, were determined to be also needed. While important research was reported to the workshop, it was clear that social exclusion was at an early stage of empirical development. Gaps were highlighted, particularly in evaluation and cost-benefit analysis. Examples of service systems designed to address social exclusion were presented at the workshop, revealing the need to better understand governance arrangements. The workshop developed recommendations for future research and policy, particularly emphasising the need to integrate social outcomes with economic and environmental transport policy at the strategic, tactical and operational levels. Finally, ideas for further exploration of social exclusion in Thredbo 11, were outlined.

Barrier-free outdoor environments: Older peoples’ perceptions before and after implementation of legislative directives

Hanna Wennberg — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:46:51 PDT

An increased focus on international and national levels of society to meet the transportation needs of older people and people with disabilities is realized through legislation, directives and guidelines on accessibility. This paper examines effects of removing physical barriers according to current Swedish governmental accessibility directives on older peoples’ perceptions of outdoor environments (usability) and on their mobility and perceived safety as pedestrians. This paper also focuses on municipal planners’ views on the implementation of improved accessibility. A before–after study, using both qualitative and quantitative methods, is conducted. The results from the questionnaires show that older peoples’ overall satisfaction with the outdoor environment has increased after implementation; however no differences are found if physical barriers specifically are considered. Older peoples’ mobility is also unchanged; nevertheless, fewer respondents are stating difficulties in walking due to barriers in the outdoor environments as reason to avoid outdoor mobility. Problems do remain after implementation, for example concerning safety/security-related issues and inaccessible entrances and indoor environments.

Transport policy for an ageing population

David Metz — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:46:49 PDT

Mobility declines with increasing age, reflecting the onset of physical or mental infirmity, affordability of travel for those on retirement incomes, and the mal-design of the transport infrastructure and operational arrangements. With the prospect of a rapidly ageing population, it is important to address measures to promote mobility if the quality of life of older people is to be sustained. In the UK, pensioners on low incomes, who could be hindered in their travel by the cost of fares on public transport, benefit from the general availability of half price (or better) concessionary fares for local travel. A variety of measures are in place to counter the effects of age-associated disabilities that hinder mobility, including low floor buses, subsidised taxis and community transport schemes. The Disability Discrimination Act is ensuring that public services vehicles are accessible to older people with disabilities. The motor car is of increasing importance in later life, particularly for those with disabilities, and a variety of design and technological approaches are being brought to bear to maintain the mobility of older people. These various efforts undoubtedly enhance the mobility of older people. However, beyond that broad conclusion it is hard to make evidencebased judgements. There is therefore a pressing need to develop methods to evaluate developments in policy and practice.

Investigating the social dimensions of transport disadvantage II: From concepts to methods through an empirical case study

Jago Dodson — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:46:48 PDT

This article is the second of two papers that review the field of spatially sensitive social scientific research into the links between social status and transport disadvantage. The first paper undertook a comprehensive review of the social scientific and transport planning literature to mark the level of development in the field and identify conceptual and methodological issues and constraints in this field of inquiry. The present article supports the advancement of socially and geographically sensitive transport research by opportunities for the development of more sophisticated spatial analytical methodologies. The approach we present is able to account for factors not previously addressed in either social or transport planning research, in particular the temporal dimensions of transport service accessibility. The article articulates the methodology through an empirical case study of socio-spatial transport disadvantage within the Gold Coast City. The article demonstrates that there are important theoretical and practical lessons to be gained for researchers and policy makers in addressing the social dimensions of transport and infrastructure provision. Further, the article argues that an attentiveness to new ways of combining and representing social and transport data-sets can promote policy relevant empirical social inquiry. The article also contributes in a productive way to the empirical knowledge of Australia's sixth-largest metropolitan area, which is often overlooked by urban scholars.

Space and place: Social Exclusion in Australia's suburban heartlands

Scott Baum — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:46:46 PDT

As a prolonged period of Australian prosperity ends, attention has now begun to turn to the likely impacts of a severe economic downturn. The pain of recession is unlikely to be evenly distributed across the population or across space. Not that the previous economic good fortune was evenly spread across society. It is, therefore, expected that a new layer of socio-economic stress will be laid over existing patterns of social and spatial disparity. In this context, questions of deprivation and social exclusion are an important ongoing concern. Deprivation and social exclusion are operative at a number of levels of society. Neo-liberal thought and policy has been directed at the level of the individual. However, space and place are also important, as spatially concentrated disadvantage has structural consequences for both individual fortunes and the broader social fabric. This article considers the spatial distribution of disadvantage across our major metropolitan regions and considers potential approaches to address social exclusion in our suburban heartlands.

Examining the role of urban form in shaping peole's accessibility to opportunities: An exploratory spatial data analysis

Darren M. Scott — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:46:44 PDT

This study employs a suite of accessibility indices to investigate whether American cities are designed in such a way that the locations of goods, services, and other opportunities favor certain socio-economic groups over others. In so doing, the study’s findings contribute to pressing policy issues such as social exclusion. Seven counties of the Louisville, Kentucky- Indiana MSA serve as the study area for the investigation. Data are derived from three sources: a geocoded travel diary survey, a geocoded database of all opportunities in the area, and a database of shortest-path travel times. Accessibility indices (gravity, cumulative opportunity, and proximity) are defined for 34 types of opportunities: four aggregate types and 30 disaggregate types representing the 10 most popular destinations for trips for each of the first three aggregate types. These indices are computed for households that responded to the trip-diary survey. Non-parametric Wilcoxon rank sum tests are used to compare the levels of accessibility experienced by five socio-economic groups (i.e., individuals residing in rural communities, individuals residing in single-person and single-parent households, individuals residing in low income households, women, and the elderly) to counterpart groups. Except for individuals residing in rural areas, the findings of this study indicate that groups conventionally considered to be at risk of social exclusion are not disadvantaged in terms of accessibility.

Can measuring the benefits of accessible transport enable a seamless journey?

Alice Maynard — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:46:42 PDT

For disabled and older people, journeys need to be seamless – with no failures in access from origin to destination. Because the public transport environment, including walking and cycling modes, is not accessible, the use of private cars remains essential to social inclusion. Consequently, social goals relating to private car use in relation to health, environment and land-use will be harder to achieve. Greater attention needs to be paid to the detail of the “journey chain” with access consistently provided throughout, making for seamless journeys. This attention needs to be paid in all aspects of transport planning as well as delivery, including in the appraisal process. In transport projects appraisal, the costs of providing access are monetized, but not the benefits. The author undertook an experiment to value the benefits of step-free access for everyone and found significant economic benefit that enhanced the benefit:cost ratio. Until the benefits of accessible transport are properly considered for everybody across the whole planning process including appraisal, providing access will continue to be an uphill struggle and access throughout the journey chain will remain hit and miss.

Public versus private mobility for the poor: Transit improvements versus increased car ownership in the Sacramento Region

Robert A. Johnson — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:46:40 PDT

In this study, the authors examined the impacts of car ownership promotion versus transit improvements on job accessibility, work trips, and traveler’s economic welfare by running a travel demand model adopted by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG). In the car scenario, the zero-car households who were assigned a car had higher job accessibility and larger traveler benefits than in the Base Case scenario. The other households had lower traveler benefits, compared to the Base Case, due to slight increases in congestion. In the transit scenario, all households had gains in traveler benefits and the households without a car gained more than those with a car. The households without a car gained more in traveler benefits in the transit scenario than in the car scenario. The total gain in traveler benefits was higher in the transit scenario. In both scenarios, the changes in total travel time, congestion, and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) were small, but mode shares changed substantially.

Mobility in old age: Beyond the transportation perspective

Heinz Juergen Kaiser — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:46:38 PDT

For the elderly mobility is a constitutive and essential element of their quality of life. Due to their aging population modern societies intend to intervene and enhance the mobility of the elderly on the basis of research findings. Indeed, numerous research projects pointed out existing barriers to mobility in old age: personal barriers (e.g., achievement deficits, diseases or handicaps), and environmental barriers (e.g., physical obstacles, technical complications). Simply overcoming these barriers does not guarantee mobility without problems and an increase of the quality of life. Beyond a "transportation perspective" of mobility more emphasis is needed with respect to emotional, motivational and social aspects of being mobile. In doing so, decision makers as well as scientists will be confronted with unexpected and non-obvious societal tasks and peculiar demands on social sciences like gerontological psychology, sociology, political science and even education.

Programs That Match Seniors With Volunteer Drivers - Practical recommendations for organisations and policy makers

Sara J. Hendricks — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:46:37 PDT

Seniors need adequate transportation, not only to maintain their health and vitality, but also to stay active in the community and fully participate in life. Transportation is the essential link to basic services needed by the aging population. The problem that this research project address is the documented general lack of transportation options suitable for seniors who are not longer able to drive, particularly those who are too frail to use public transportation. The development and operation of volunteer driving programs for seniors has been one approach to solve this problem. However, these programs encounter various operational challenges, including a demand for service that is far greater than program capacity. Challenges involve configuring volunteer driving services that can be sustained over time within the limitations of scarce resources. While the issues facing volunteer driving programs are varied, the most significant problem is insufficient numbers of volunteers. Protecting the safety of riders and drivers and properly insuring a program are both fundamental to the success of a volunteer driving program. Liability insurance problems can profoundly influence how a volunteer program operates. This research project had three objectives: (1) to identify and explore the challenges of developing and operating a volunteer senior mobility service; (2) to propose solutions to establish successful programs; and (3) to provide guidance on best practices that could be used by a variety of audiences, including transit agencies, paratransit agencies, non-profit programs, social service agencies, volunteer driving programs and policy makers. This report provides recommendations to volunteer driving programs on how to enhance risk management and recruit volunteers. Recommendations are offered to public transit agencies and commuter assistance programs on how to coordinate volunteer driving programs. Recommendations are provided for rising public awareness and legislative remedies to enact liability reforms.

Perception, attitudes and beliefs, and openness to change: Implications for older driver education

Holly A. Tuokko — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:46:35 PDT

With a rapidly aging population, strategies for improving driver safety are beginning to emerge that focus on changing driving behaviors and knowledge. We examined the perceptions of risk, beliefs and attitudes, and openness to change of 86 older participants voluntarily attending a driver education program. It appeared that most people attending these sessions were not necessarily concerned about their own driving, safety or abilities, but were interested in maintaining mobility. They were conservative and reasonably consistent in their attitudes toward traffic regulations and safe driving practices. Some gender differences emerged with more men than women being resistant to changing their driving habits, more men than women reporting that they drive after consuming alcohol and more women than men identifying a role for their families in decision-making regarding driving cessation. This suggests that educational material may need to be targeted differently for men and women. It is anticipated that psychosocial factors related to driving such as driver perception, beliefs and openness to change will be useful for maximizing the fit between education program content and outcomes.

Exploring public transport usage trends in an ageing population

Graham Currie — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:46:33 PDT

An ageing population remains one of the most significant challenges for Western society in the 21st century. Whilst public transport use has attractive sustainability features for older generations there is mixed evidence with regard to trends in travel and public transport use in ageing societies. This paper explores public transport trip rates amongst older age groups using travel survey evidence collected from a household travel survey in Melbourne, Australia for the period 1994 to 1999. A particular aim of the research was to establish trends in trip rates so as to explore the impact of the ageing Baby Boomer generation on travel by public transport. The results suggested that compared to those aged below 60, those aged over 60 years demonstrated 30% lower trip making overall and 16% lower public transport trip rates. Longitudinal trends in trip rates showed those aged over 60 had a very small decline in trip rates by public transport (−0.004 average daily trips per annum) but increasing rates for car trips. A further analysis showed a small but significant increase in longitudinal trip rates of public transport use amongst Baby Boomers (0.004 daily trips p.a., p < .05) while car usage for Baby Boomers was steady. The implication of these findings is that trends in the existing over 60s population are not necessarily going to flow through to behaviour patterns in the Baby Boomer generations. The Baby Boomer age group showed longitudinal trends in travel behaviour which contrasted with those of the existing over 60s generation notably with a trend towards increased public transport usage.

Actual and perceived car dependence: Likely implications of enforced reducctions in car use for livelihoods, lifestyles and well being.

Karen Lucas — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:46:31 PDT

A scoping study was conducted into the nature of car dependence in the United Kingdom. The primary aims of the study were to gain deeper insight into the changing nature and causes of car dependence over the past 20 years, to consider whether dependence was a useful way of characterizing the situation, and to identify the likely economic and social consequences of moving beyond the current voluntary interventions primarily being used to encourage people to reduce their car use and to adopt alternative, more sustainable modes. The new direction is toward more coercive and nonvoluntary future interventions, such as road pricing or carbon taxation. The study involved four interactive stages: a literature and policy review, time series analysis of data from the U.K. National Travel Survey 1995 to 1996 and 2005 to 2006, interviews with key local stakeholders, and exploratory focus-group exercises with selected members of the general public. Reported are findings of the literature review and exploratory focus-group exercises only. A full report of the study and supporting working papers can be found on the Royal Automobile Club Foundation website www.racfoundation.org.

A case study of job access and reverse commute programs in the Chicago, Kansas City, and San Francisco metropolitan regions

J. S. Onésimo Sandoval — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 22:39:54 PDT

The 1996 federal welfare-to-work legislation generated significant debate regarding what role public transportation should play in facilitating lower welfare rates. Given this debate, transportation has been called the “to” component of welfare-to-work. In this paper, we present findings from three case studies that examine job accessibility and reverse commute transportation programs in the Chicago, Kansas City, and San Francisco metropolitan regions. We explored how institutional and/or grassroots support prevented or fostered the innovation and implementation of non-traditional Access-to-Jobs and Reverse Commute (JARC) programs. Our findings suggest that institutional support and grassroots support are necessary ingredients for the implementation of innovative transportation programs for low-income families.

The usefulness of social exclusion to inform social policy in transport

Janet Stanley — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 22:39:53 PDT

This article examines a variety of conceptualisations and measurement approaches to social exclusion and the usefulness of these to understanding social policy as it relates to transport. It argues that there is a need to broaden the criteria to encompass all aspects of well-being, the broad outcome desired to optimise a person's mobility. Understanding of the importance of interpersonal interactions is not well covered under the ambit of social exclusion, thus the need for measures around social capital and community. Additionally, there is a need to include measures of psychological factors, to comprehensively understand transport outcomes for people.

Investigating links between transport disadvantage, social exclusion and well-being in Melbourne—Preliminary results

Graham Currie — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 22:39:51 PDT

This paper summarises preliminary results of a study to extend knowledge associated with social exclusion and transport by quantifying social and behavioural implications of lack of public transport and the nature of the social well-being benefits associated with improving services. Metropolitan results are outlined including methodologies exploring the distribution of transport disadvantage in Melbourne, Australia and how this relates to public transport services. An exploration of high car ownership for groups on low income is also presented. Gaps in coverage of public transport are identified and future research outlined.

Growing bus patronage and addressing transport disadvantage—The Melbourne experience

Chris Loader — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 22:39:49 PDT

Melbourne's bus network serves two-thirds of the city's population but, until recently, has generally had very poor service levels. The Victorian government has recently embarked on programs to (1) extend a network of premium trunk routes to address a ‘mass transit’ agenda and (2) upgrade local routes to ‘safety net’ minimum service levels, to address a ‘social transit’ agenda (reducing transport disadvantage and social exclusion). The paper reviews recent experience from the service upgrades to assess how effective they have been in terms of these agendas. Analysis of patronage growth trends and the impacts of these upgrade programs suggest reasonable minimum service levels are required to attract new riders in times of modal shift, and are effective at building social capital.

A PTAL approach to measuring changes in bus service accessibility

Belinda Wu — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 22:39:48 PDT

Accessible transport systems are essential to ensure equal opportunities for all people in society. The need for information about transport disadvantage is now a key policy requirement and previous studies have highlighted the need for tools to assess the impact of interventions on the bus network and the accessibility of the system. Geographical Information System (GIS) and ACCMAP enable the analysis of transport disadvantage and accessibility. This paper provides an analysis of the Citybus Network in Northern Ireland and assesses the spatial impact of a hypothetical network change on populations residing within the Citybus network area.