This paper is concerned primarily with the problems of those sections of the population who are in practice unable to own or drive cars, in particular the elderly, the poor, young people and housewives. It looks at the extent to which members of these groups are disadvantaged as a result of the reduced travel opportunities available to them, and the circumstances under which transport problems (i.e. problems of access to activities) follow from such disadvantage. These groups have low mobility (where mobility is the capacity that a person possesses for getting around in his everyday life). reference is made to the fact that very immobile people seem to ask for relatively little additional transport, because the extent to which they could carry out activities at a destination might in any case be limited. Similarly the elderly and the poor may not always be able to benefit from the sorts of shopping facilities available in hypermarkets and other large stores. Children from deprived backgrounds may not have any interest in the wider recreational opportunities that could result from increased mobility. This paper, which draws on a more detailed study, reviews the findings of various British research studies and supplements them with data from the 1975/76 national travel survey (NTS). For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD abstract no 261041.
Abstract