Social Dimensions of Sustainable Transport

Transatlantic Perspectives

Stefan Poppelreuter, Kieran Donaghy

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781351899567
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Geography
• Index: Geography

Based on the work of the STELLA (Sustainable Transport in Europe and Links and Liaisons with America) Focus Group 3, this volume brings together leading transport academics to discuss society behaviour and public/private transport. Theoretical and empirical research from across North America and Europe form the basis of this book, which is composed of twelve chapters that fall into four logical sections. Chapters in the first section provide a contextual overview and survey trends in mobility behaviour and prospects of sustainable transport in the two continents. Chapters in the second section provide comparative assessments of difficulties posed by contemporary transport systems for three particular user groups (low-income, female, and elderly), interventions indicated, and research needed. The third set of chapters survey recent developments in behavioural modelling that lend themselves to the study of the constellation of issues concerning STELLA Focus Group 3. The remaining chapters of the book address critical issues of equity and policy implementation.

Chapter 1

Social Dimensions of Sustainable Transport: Introduction and Overview

Kieran P. Donaghy, Stefan Poppelreuter and Georg Rudinger

Introduction

It is increasingly evident that modern lifestyles in affluent societies, and the mobility behaviours associated with such life styles, are not compatible with sustainable outcomes. Such outcomes include an acceptable level of environmental quality, efficient use of human, natural, and financial resources, social cohesion and just distributions of opportunities and costs of using transport and other public infrastructure-based systems. Changes in transport beget changes in society and social change in turn begets changes in transport behaviour. The dynamics of these interdependent changes are playing out both in ways that are similar and ways that are different in Europe and North America. Effective management of change requires better understanding of these dynamics. The Stella and Star networks have been organized in large part to respond to this need for understanding.¹ Stella Focus Group 3, which is concerned with Society, Behaviour, and Private/Public Transport, has held several meetings at which trend notes and research on social and behavioural aspects of sustainable transport were presented and discussed. The chapters in this volume were, for the most part, presented at the first meeting at the University of Bonn in April 2002 and the second meeting at the US National Science Foundation in Arlington, Virginia in January 2003. They survey transatlantic trends in mobility behaviour, identify the extent and limits of our current understanding of this behaviour, and identify issues warranting further examination.

In this introductory chapter we present an overview and motivation for the choice of topics treated by the contributing authors under the headings of “transatlantic trends and prospects”, “mobility needs of socially excluded, elderly, and female transport systems users”, “society, behaviour, and sustainable transport”, and “policy considerations”. We conclude with a brief discussion of a transatlantic research agenda on social and behavioural aspects of sustainable transport.

Transatlantic Trends and Prospects²

In the 20^th and 21^st centuries both Europe and North America have witnessed urban settlement patterns of outward growth and lower densities and increased demands for personal transportation. As locations of residential, work, and leisure activities have become increasingly separated spatially, mobility has increased and come to be valued more. Social networks have become more far flung and there are perhaps fewer overlapping uses in the same place. Industrial production and distribution has also become more transit intensive as the relative cost of transport in production has steadily decreased. We consider first the broad sweep of these changes and then specific details of the specific cases of the United States, countries of the European Union, and Central and Eastern Europe countries.

As Axhausen (2002) has observed, the key societal development of the last 100 years has been the translation of accumulated differences between productivity and population growth into mass consumption. The key sectors in this process have been housing and transportation. In the period of reference, most populations of the OECD countries have achieved almost complete motorisation. Increased access to transport has been translated into use and associated speed gains translated into longer distances travelled. The literature suggests consumers have a constant ‘travel budget’, or tend to spend the same amount of time travelling regardless of speed of travel, and the pattern is discernible in all OECD countries (Axhausen, 2002). Increases in housing consumption, distances travelled, and telephone contact have led to a rearrangement of expenditures from increasing household budgets. While expenditure shares of food have dropped considerably, expenditure shares of leisure, education, travel, and communication have all nearly doubled since the early 1900s. While the larger shares of expenditures on leisure and education reflect longer life expectancy, more years spent in education, shorter work weeks, and longer retirements, the adoption of the automobile is the primary reason for the increase in the expenditure shares of travel and communication.

The motorized, connected, and spatially dispersed populations of today have different patterns of work and socialisation than the populations of 50 years ago. Daily life revolves around friends, family, work, school, and shopping. The distribution over space of these commitments and opportunities shapes the activity space of a person in his or her everyday environment. The size of this activity space determines a person’s consumption of transport services. Increasing distances between the poles of a person’s activity space have far reaching and permanent effects, which cannot be reversed quickly, given long-term investments made in work, family, and friendship. Society has increasingly become based on spatially dispersed networks, which are weakly overlapping. The breakdown of walking environments and the weakening of closed social milieus have been contributing factors. In view of these trends, one may assume that not only will the members of social networks be spatially dispersed, but social networks will be less coherent – i.e., fewer people who are spatially proximate will share multiple affiliations.

Within the last 25 years personal miles travelled in the United States (US) has increased by 80%, a rate which is almost 3 times that of population growth over the same period. While there has been increased demand for automobile use over the last few decades, the same cannot be said for bus and transit use. The downward trend in transit ridership, which began in the 1950s, can be explained in part by the patterns of metropolitan form that have evolved. (See Schintler, this volume). In many metropolitan areas, the suburbanization process has given rise to polycentric patterns of development and the emergence of edge cities, urban sprawl, and areas of low-density development. These patterns are not conducive to transit use, neither bus nor rail, as they lack the density required to support efficient operation. The development of information and communications technologies and their use in control of production and supply-chain logistics have contributed to a functional division of labor in space or vertical and horizontal fragmentation of industrial production, the development of just-in-time and other approaches to production that are generally more transport-intensive. In the United States the logistics revolution has contributed significantly to the volume of freight shipments.

In her survey of trends and prospects in North America, Laurie Schintler observes similarities in US, Canadian, and Mexican patterns of automobile acquisition but differences in patterns of transit use. She also observes that transportation policies in the three countries seem to be motivated by different concerns, but there is a discernible reticence among all North American countries to adopt road pricing as a policy response. Schintler indicates that more research is needed to determine the nature of attitudes to various policy alternatives, but also to determine i) what is needed to implement more telecommuting, ii) what are the potential contributions of intelligent transportation systems, and iii) how transportation systems can be financed and managed. In particular she advocates the use of survey research to elicit better information about transportation system user preferences and attitudes.

In the countries of the European Union (prior to May 2004) there has also been a spectacular increase in automobile use. Presently 80% of all passenger journeys are made by car, 8% by bus, 6% by rail, and 5% by air (European Commission, 2003). Air transport has grown rapidly, with passenger traffic rising at an average annual rate of more than 7% over the last 20 years. Rail transport, however, has been in decline as market share for passenger traffic has declined from 10% to 6%, and from 21% to 8% for freight. This decline reflects some problems of rail: railways are slower and less reliable than road transport, national railways operate according to different standards and have not done enough to integrate with each other. While water transport is viewed as the poor relation among different forms of transport, 41% of goods transported within the EU travel by ship over short-sea routes.

Suchorzewski (this volume) reports that, in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, since 1990, passenger trips made by car have increased by 5 to 7% per year. The number of passengers served by railways has dropped by about 5.7% per year, as has use of intercity bus transport. In some CEE countries the state has completely withdrawn from its role as owner and financier of urban transport, while still preserving part of control over urban finances. In some countries, such as Poland, emphasis has been placed on mobility management in an effort to decouple economic growth from transport intensity.

In his survey of trends and prospects in transition economies of the CEE countries, Wojciech Suchorzewski observes the convergence of unsustainable mobility patterns of CEE countries with Western European and North American countries. Yet he notes the growing appreciation by CEE transport professionals and policy makers of the need to make ‘transport and overall development policies’ more sustainable, in spite of the difficulty of implementing such changes. He anticipates the thinking of other contributors to this volume (especially Axhausen and Stern and Richardson) in calling for more basic research on travel behaviour that might contribute insights that would facilitate mobility management. Suchorzewski urges CEE countries with transitional economies to exploit existing knowledge and technologies to avoid the negative consequences of the growth of mobility and modal shift. He also anticipates other authors (Waldorf and Pitfield and Schaie and Mollenkopf) in calling for studies of the differing travel behaviour of men and women and in calling attention to the needs of people with physical handicaps.

Although walking and cycling are the most economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable forms of human mobility, they are not adequately catered for in policies or practice in either North America or Europe and are in decline. (See the contribution by Gaffron in this volume.). In the European Union there is a significant unfulfilled potential for them since 50% of all trips are shorter than 3 kilometers, a distance which can be walked in 25 minutes or cycled in 10. Yet statistics show that the modal share of walking and cycling in Europe is declining (DGTREN, 2002). Spatial spread in social networks, motorisation of private transport, and policies encouraging more of the same have together contributed further to a decline in walking and cycling. Changes in settlement patterns and mobility behaviour have been accompanied by a number of significant demographic changes. The populations of both continents have been aging as the proportion of the population at 65 years of age or older is at its historical high. People are living longer and having fewer children, although the latter phenomenon is more pronounced in Europe (Economist, 2002.) Of those living longer, more are women. With the aging and feminisation of the population has also come a shrinking of the middle class and an increased spatial concentration of low-income members of society. (See, e.g., Krugman, 2003.) Elderly, female, and socially excluded (principally, low-income) users of public and private transport have different mobility needs which are met more or less well by existing systems and we consider each in turn.

Mobility Needs of Socially Excluded, Elderly, and Female Transport System Users

The nature and pattern of social exclusion is quite different between the US and European countries, as well as among European countries. First, redistribution policies are more limited in the US. Second, social exclusion in the US is heavily concentrated in the inner city and rural areas, mainly due to the intersection of poverty and exclusion with race and ethnicity and related discriminatory practices in the US housing market (Kaplan and Halloway, 1998). Third, the dominance of the private vehicle in US urban transport makes automobile mobility essential everywhere, with the possible exception of the centres of the largest cities. Low-income households are much less likely to own an automobile, and, when they do, it tends to be much older. Low-income individuals tend to walk and the ride the bus more than higher-income individuals.

Certain groups are disproportionately at risk of social exclusion and people are most vulnerable at particular stages of the life cycle. The primary dimension of social exclusion is poverty. Of those suffering relative poverty, six groups are most at risk: children, young people, older women, the unemployed, single parents and large families.

Because the US poverty definition is based on fundamental needs (e.g., food consumption requirements), adjusted for household size and composition, the poverty rate defined is much lower than in the EU. The European Council’s joint report on social exclusion, published in December 2001, recognizes the need for a broader approach assessing exclusion, which not only emphasizes low-income but also access to equally relevant aspects such as jobs, education, housing, healthcare, the degree of satisfaction of basic needs and the ability to participate fully in society (Council of the European Union, 2001).

In their chapter Laurie Pickup and Genevieve Giuliano identify transport-related factors that compound the primary risks of social exclusion in both Europe and the US Several examples are as follows. Travel patterns become tied to the monthly cycle of social benefit payments, contributing to access and mobility patterns of the unemployed. Difficulties accessing facilities limit the ability to maintain social contact of low-income elderly people who are reliant on public transport. The high cost of transport for low-wage workers restricts their social activity space, reinforces a local lifestyle, and increases the likelihood of further social exclusion. Children and teenagers from transport disadvantaged families suffer from their limited ability to travel beyond their ‘disadvantaged’ area.

Pickup and Giuliano identify as factors contributing to social exclusion poor access to services, lack of hope, and polarized and fragmented communities. They note that car dependency can contribute to exclusion and discuss differences in how European and North American countries deal with this phenomenon. Pickup and Giuliano identify as important areas of research and policy analysis i) developing a consistent definition of social exclusion, ii) improving understanding of transport and social exclusions, and iii) understanding policy impacts and sustainable transport policy.

For the elderly, mobility is a quality of life issue. It is essential for maintaining attributes of personal choice and independence, familiar habits, and lifestyle. Mobile elderly are able to reduce personal isolation, participate in recreational activities, obtain goods and services, maintain access to financial and personal consultants, remain active in a religious or spiritual community, and maintain intellectual stimulation. Although aging is accompanied by waning strength, the needs of the elderly and disabled are different.

Good physical mobility has been found to be the best predictor of elderly persons’ satisfaction with mobility, while neither gender nor size of household significantly affects satisfaction. Walking is the most important mode for older people. A comprehensive notion of mobility should take into account the degree of mobility realized, the range of activities engaged in, the variety of transportation modes available to users, and satisfaction with mobility.

In their contribution to this volume, Schaie and Mollenkopf discuss the importance of mobility to the elderly and identify major issues of mobility maintenance. They further discuss possible interventions that would help elderly transport systems users to conpensate for declining skills, as well as the advisability of these interventions, and identify public policy issues regarding mobility needs of the elderly. They also present findings of a comparative study of mobility of older persons in five European countries and draw the implications of these findings.

While the populations of all European and North American countries are all aging, the aging process differs across countries. Simultaneously, the process of feminisation (or increase in percentage of women in the population) varies across countries. As women age they tend to drive less or cease driving altogether more so than men. The growing difference between the numbers of elderly who survive and cease to drive (or do not drive) and those who survive and continue to drive indicates that there will be a growing demand for trips that are not auto-dependent. While the difference is greater for women than for men, the number of elderly men and women needing public transportation services will be increasing. On the basis of multiple-risk survival models, Brigitte Waldorf and David Pitfield report in then-chapter that this difference will become particularly critical in the US around the year 2018. This potential development has a number of implications. In addition to a need for greater provision of public transportation, especially if older people should be convinced to quit driving, traffic management will need to be adapted to the changing driving population. Road markings and street signs will need to be made more visible, intersections simplified, HOV lanes increased and infrastructure and vehicles redesigned. The relocation of residences and facilities for retirement communities will also need to be better planned. Public transportation will need to be adapted to the needs of elderly users and information technology used more widely. And if...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Acronyms
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Social Dimensions of Sustainable Transport: Introduction and Overview
• 2 Society, Behaviour, and Private/Public Transport: Trends and Prospects in Transition Economies of Central and Eastern Europe
• 3 Society, Behaviour, and Private/Public Transport: Trends and Prospects in North America
• 4 Transport and Social Exclusion in Europe and the USA
• 5 Mobility Issues in the United States and Europe
• 6 The Effect of Demographic Shifts on Non-Automobile Transportation Needs of the Elderly
• 7 Social Networks and Travel: Some Hypotheses
• 8 Accessibility and Quality of Life: Time-Geographic Perspectives
• 9 An Analysis of the Effects of Urban Land Use on Transportation
• 10 A New Research Agenda for Modelling Travel Choice and Behaviour
• 11 Transportation and Equity
• 12 The Implementation of Walking and Cycling Policies
• Index