Our transport planning system penalises people who can’t afford a car
New analysis shows the extent of vulnerability of people in Scotland to ‘transport poverty’ and highlights high-risk zones and their characteristics. This work is important because it enables policy makers to target higher risk communities when planning for transport.
The research undertaken by Sustrans brings together data on household income, car availability and access to key services using public transport in Scotland to make an approximation of the potential for pressure on household finances as a result of reliance on private transport. We go on to identify the most vulnerable areas.
Defining transport poverty
Although there is no formal definition of transport poverty, the importance of transport availability in relation to accessing jobs, education and essential services is referenced in many publications.
The 1998 Transport White Paper (Department for Transport, 1998) highlighted the impact of being financially excluded from accessing transport:
“Being unable to afford transport can limit everyday life. Job, training and education opportunities are more limited and there is less choice in shopping, adding to the family budgets of those least able to bear the cost”.
The guidance to the 2010 Child Poverty Act (Department of Education, 2010) says:
“Transport infrastructure, and accessibility to local services for children and parents, and employment opportunities for parents, are important in all local areas and are likely to be particularly so for those living in more remote or rural areas where the effects of growing up in poverty may be compounded by poorer access to services”.
And the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are permeated with references to the role of transport and mobility in supporting poverty alleviation.
All of which gives us confidence to think that the variables that we have considered are an appropriate starting point:
- Income
- Car availability
- Access to key services using public transport
Calculating and mapping transport poverty in Scotland
Our methodology uses existing data to explore the concept of transport poverty. The model works around the assumption that areas most at risk are those with low income, high car availability and low access to essential services by public transport.
Each of these variables is used to assign a score to a geographical area. The scores generated are then combined to create a final ‘transport poverty’ profile - placing each area into low, medium and high-risk categories.
Of the 6,976 data zones in Scotland, 21% (1,481) were placed in the ‘high’ risk category. These areas encompass almost 488,000 households and a population of 1.1 million. Please note the measures are area based, rather than population based. Whilst each data zone has been allocated a category of risk based on an average measure of income, car availability and public transport accessibility, this cannot be extended to individuals living within those areas.
Most high-risk data zones were located in accessible rural areas (29% of all high-risk data zones) and accessible small towns (28%). A further 19% were located in remote rural/very remote rural areas, 13% in large/other urban areas and 12% in remote small towns/very remote small towns.
Tackling transport poverty
Transport poverty is a complex issue but its impact is clear. Our transport planning system penalises people who cannot afford a car, who struggle to cover rising public transport fares and who lack access to public or private transport because of age, disability or where they live.
Amongst the high-risk data zones, we identified areas where essential services can be accessed by cycle within 10 minutes. Even in the small, accessible towns and in ‘remote small towns, the data indicates that cycling could present a viable alternative to driving to access services – travel times by cycling are reasonable, and some regular day to day journeys (namely commuting) are already being made by cycle.
here are so many variables that link transport and poverty. But there is no doubt that active travel can provide a part of the solution to reducing inequalities. This is just one of the reasons why investment in walking and cycling is so important, and why Sustrans will seek to optimise the effects of our work throughout the UK on alleviating poverty.
Read the blog on what Sustrans think government needs to do to address transport poverty in Scotland
Download the report: Transport poverty in Scotland
from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8239590 https://www.sustrans.org.uk/blog/people-scotland-vulnerable-transport-poverty
via IFTTT
source https://ukresinboundsurfacing.tumblr.com/post/166464464913
No comments:
Post a Comment