[sustran] Re: mobility as a right

[V. Setty Pendakur]

David, thanks.  Good to hear from you.  Hope all is well with you and your family.

What is correct reference for this study and is it available on the web?

Best wishes.  Setty.
Dr. V. Setty Pendakur
Professor Emeritus, University of BC
Honorary Professor, National Academy of Sciences of the PRC
Chair, TRB-ABE90 & Director, ITDP
President
Pacific Policy and Planning Associates
702--1099 Marinaside Crescent
Vancouver, BC, Canada  V6Z 2Z3
Phone: 604-263-3576; Fax:604-263-6493
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Maunder, Dave A C 
  To: Chris Bradshaw ; Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport 
  Sent: Friday, March 11, 2005 12:51 AM
  Subject: [sustran] Re: mobility as a right




  I enclose a short abstract from a TRL report on Sustainable Livelihoods
  , mobility and access needs published in 2003 which may help clarify
  access and mobility

  1.1 Distinguishing mobility and accessibility 
  All communities require accessibility to supplies, services, facilities
  and work opportunities. The accessibility of such things can be measured
  in a number of different ways [Jones, 1981]. Accessibility depends on
  infrastructure and available and affordable modes of transport for the
  movement of people and their loads. Accessibility therefore depends on
  physical proximity and mobility. It may be improved by greater mobility
  and/or improved proximity.

  Mobility is simply a measure of the agency with which people choose to
  move themselves or their goods around. This involves two components. The
  first of these depends on the performance of the transport system, which
  is affected by where the person is and the timing and direction in which
  they wish to travel. The second component depends on the characteristics
  of the individual such as whether s/he has a bicycle or car available,
  can afford taxi, bus, or rail fares, is able to walk or use public
  transport, or has knowledge of the options available [Porter, 2001]. In
  other words, the first element is concerned with the effectiveness of
  the transport system in connecting spatially separated locations, and
  the second element is concerned with the extent to which a particular
  individual or type of person is able to make use of the transport
  system.

  Accessibility, or the perceived proximity of desired locational
  destinations, is heavily influenced by the transport mode being used.
  Accessibility is concerned not with behaviour but with the opportunity,
  or potential, provided by the transport and land-use system for
  different types of people to engage in activities. 

  The two concepts of mobility and accessibility are clearly related but
  can be easily confused when they are not distinguished from the
  intervening facilitation of different modes of transport. In the
  transport literature accessibility is often defined as the ease with
  which one reaches a desired location. In fact taking a more social
  science perspective which traces agency and process, 'ease of movement'
  and 'ease of access' are attributes of the transport modality rather
  than a feature of the mobile agent or the locational destination per se.



  In this research an emphasis on mobility is preferred because it is
  concerned directly with behaviour. This is more in keeping with the
  decisions that must be made to ensure, enhance and sustain livelihoods.
  Moreover, mobility, activity systems, and welfare can be conceptually
  related. Any analysis of mobility must take account of all the
  motivational factors of individual agents. An agent's age, gender and
  income will heavily influence his/her choice of destinations as well as
  facilitating the possibility for individual movement. For example, women
  may be socially sanctioned from going to public bars to drink, or a
  young man's income may prevent him from having the money to travel to a
  distant sports event even though he may highly desire to do so.

  Physical mobility has to be distinguished at three levels: short-term
  daily or frequent regularised patterns of mobility, 'one's daily
  movement'; medium-term long-distance mobility, in other words, 'travel
  mobility'; and finally, long-term residential mobility. The three levels
  interact in a number of ways, but it would be highly misleading to lump
  them together. For example, one may state that a certain woman is highly
  mobile because she travels a great deal for pleasure seeing different
  parts of the world whereas she has lived in the same location all her
  life and commutes daily to her work just half a kilometre from her home.
  This can be contrasted with someone who has lived in many different
  places over the course of his/her life or has a job involving continual
  daily movement around a big city. Who is more mobile? Clearly, an
  individual's level of mobility has to be qualified to be meaningful.

  To isolate the influence of mobility levels and changes on livelihoods,
  our study attempted to hold accessibility constraints reasonably
  constant by excluding the sampling of remote communities. These are
  often dominated either by severe road access problems or major
  [long-distance] mobility constraints that preclude individual
  initiatives. They have, in any case, already been extensively studied
  [Barwell, 1996; Dennis, 1998; Hine and Rutter, 2000]. Our study
  concentrated on parts of the city where the range of transport modes,
  network density and transport access are comparatively high, which
  facilitates an understanding of the influence of income differentiation
  on mobility and the poor's relative mobility position.

  D Maunder
  TRL Limited
  ================================================================
  SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred,
  equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries
  (the 'Global South'). Because of the history of the list, the main focus
  is on urban transport policy in Asia.


  ______________________________________________________
  This communication contains information sent from the TRL Limited
  email system which is confidential, and may also be privileged.
  It is for the exclusive use of the addressee.  If you are not the
  addressee, please note that any distribution, copying or use of
  this communication, or the information therein, is prohibited.
  If you have received this communication in error, please notify
  the sender by return email.

  TRL Limited reserves the right to monitor emails in accordance
  with the Telecommunications Lawful Business Practice -
  Interception of Communications Regulations 2000.


  ================================================================
  SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South'). Because of the history of the list, the main focus is on urban transport policy in Asia.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://list.jca.apc.org/manage/private/sustran-discuss/attachments/20050311/90211a8c/attachment.html