Transport Disadvantage, Car Dependence and Urban Form

In a more mobile world, the ability to cover greater distances and access to motorised means of transport are increasingly important for access to services and opportunities and, as a result, for social status and inclusion. In this chapter, we put forward an integrated conceptualisation of transport disadvantage, based on an extensive literature review and on insights from our own research. Given the dominance and the structuring power of car-based mobility in developed societies, we sketch a typology of different forms of car-related transport disadvantage, which allows us to show how access problems vary considerably in relation to car ownership and use. Given the important relationships between transport disadvantage, urban structure and the built environment, we then illustrate the spatial dimension of all forms of car-related transport disadvantage and demonstrate the role of urban socio-spatial configurations (i.e. patterns in the distribution of different social groups within metropolitan areas) in compounding or alleviating these issues. In the concluding section, we briefly review the policy options to tackle transport disadvantage, providing concrete examples of the measures proposed and implemented in a number countries.