Is Transport Poverty Socially or Environmentally Driven? Comparing the Travel Behaviours of Two Low-Income Populations Living in Central and Peripheral Locations in the Same City

The paper presents the methodology and results from a study to explore the relationship between travel poverty and social disadvantage at the local geographical level. The methodology is designed to help local policymakers understand how their transport plans affect low-income population groups living in different deprived areas of the city. The research analysed data from a personal travel survey and one-day travel diary that was conducted with 500 adults aged between 16-65 years who are residents of two different local areas in Merseyside, a region in the North East of England. The main aim of the research was to identify the extent to which the revealed travel behavioural outcomes of the study participants are mainly associated with their social circumstances or are an outcome of the nature of the residential locations in which they live. Specifically, we sought to identify if the improved access to local amenities and public transport services of the inner city residents led to increased daily travel activities compared with their urban peripheral counterparts. The analysis was partially hampered by the size and quality of the datasets. With this caveat in mind, the different model results suggest that both social factors and environmental factors probably interact to influence the trip-making patterns of low-income households, but that where people live within the city is probably more influential than factors such as household income or other indicators of social disadvantage.