Just mobility in the city: the case of non-motorized households in car-dependent cities

By the simple fact of not owning a private automobile, some households are already experiencing sustainable mobility. They rely on public transportation networks, cycling and car sharing and tend to travel less than car-owning households. However, current sustainable mobility policies often do not take into account these kinds of households, focussing instead on convincing car owners to shift in their modal behaviours. We examine the mobility behaviours of non-motorized households living in several car-dependent Western Cities and consider ways to make public policies more just towards them. We consider this group as an everyday example of sustainable mobility and examine policy solutions that could make it easier for those foregoing private car ownership. We compare the similarities and differences between North American and European households by surveying households in Quebec City (Canada) and Strasbourg (France). In total we interviewed 57 households to describe their mobility behaviour and find out from them what policies are missing. We also inquired about social exclusion associated with their lack of private vehicles in a car-dependent society. In this paper we present our initial findings regarding what our interviewees suggest to improve public policy concerning their sustainable mobility. We also expose their ideas of a perfect world for non- motorized households.

Living Without a Car

Dominic Villeneuve

This research explores the links between social exclusion, car dependence and public policies for members of non-motorized households who are potentially socially excluded. It is at the crossroads of urban sociology, public policy and transport geography. Comparing urban areas in North America and Europe, it comprises two case studies: Quebec City in Canada and Strasbourg in France. Using a mixed methods approach, I combine qualitative and quantitative research tools to examine how the interactions of various policies, levels of car dependence, urban planning and land use affect mobility-related social exclusion with special attention to gender-based differences. The analysis is based on official origin-destination survey data from both urban areas, semi-directed interviews within non-motorized households and with public servants, and policy documents. I find that the factors causing non-motorized households to feel socially excluded are similar on both sides of the Atlantic. Mobility-related social exclusion can be associated with the fact of having to find an alternative to the car in order to reach certain destinations. Relying on the bus is often experienced as inconvenient, linked to long waiting times, having to leave early during evening outings and making detours instead of using a direct route. Such feelings made many of the study participants feel excluded. Participants who felt socially excluded commonly mentioned feeling left out of the political process and not listened to during public consultations. Some participants also felt excluded for not having a driver's licence, especially in France. Non-motorized households revealed that aggressive behaviour by motorists or their refusal to share the road with alternative mobility users were a further factor leading to social exclusion. Finally, judgmental comments by others who literally could not understand how they could live without a car - or who thought they didn't have one because of drunk driving or poverty - was also associated with social exclusion in my sample. The study participants often felt that owning a car had negative repercussions on their independence, as it comes with financial burdens, including car payments, vehicle repairs and maintenance. They reported feeling liberated from such burdens, as well as from logistical grievances like finding a parking spot or moving the car during snow removal, thus presenting a point of view not often explored in the literature. The public servants considered that some of the population was car-dependent, which made the implementation of restrictive measures on the car challenging. When discussing policy solutions, the main challenge brought up by civil servants were urban sprawl and political aspects related to urban planning. The policies in place to address transport and social exclusion contained three distinct sets of discourses. They either discussed social aspects, legal aspects, or mobility and land planning aspects. Each level of government had its own different focus, but car dependence per se was almost completely absent from policy documents, and most causes of mobility-related social exclusion were not addressed.

EPFL2017

Mobility practices of non- motorized households, the cases of Quebec City and Strasbourg

Dominic Villeneuve

By the simple fact of not owning a private automobile, some households are already living a sustainable mobility lifestyle. They rely on public transportation, walking, cycling and car sharing and generally travel less than car-owning households. According to Tabbone (forthcoming) non-motorized households in France consume on average 5850 kWh less per year than motorized households, representing 34% less energy consumption than the average for motorized urban and periurban households1. Even when we look only at the energy consumption footprint inside the residence, excluding mobility, non-motorized households still consume on average 9% less than their motorized counterparts. The good news is that in many European cities, in Geneva and Lausanne for example, the number of non-motorized households is rapidly increasing (Fabbo et al., 2014, p. 311). Although non-motorized households is a group showing sustainable practices in their daily mobility, current sustainable mobility policies often do not take into account these kinds of households, focussing instead on convincing car owners to shift modal behaviours (Grengs, 2005, p. 52; Kaufmann, Jemelin, Pflieger, & Pattaroni, 2008, p. 18). Sometimes non-motorized feel socially excluded, because their mobility is limited for a lack of private car (Schönfelder & Axhausen, 2003, p. 273). The situation of people deprived of motorized vehicles in a car- dependent context appears as an exemplary case to study the complex intertwining of justice issues in contemporary cities. In order to explore this phenomenon and shed light on the mobility practices of non-motorized households living in car-dependent Western cities we met with 57 non-motorized households in Quebec City, Canada and Strasbourg, France as part of our PhD dissertation. We use discourse analysis software (IRaMuTeQ) to analyze and compare the verbatim transcript of our interviews between the two cities. We would like to present our findings at the Swiss Mobility Conference in the discussions related to mobility “actors and their logics of action (residential choice, modal practices, multilocal living, etc)”. Through our lexocimetric analysis we have exposed the different discourse that non-motorized households have when reflecting on which activities or area 1 Based on a sample representative of the entire population of France in 2013 that cannot partake in due to their lack of private vehicles. Based on different variables: gender, feeling excluded or not, living in Quebec City or Strasbourg, being a member or not of the car-sharing system and revenue level, we can show that their discourse varies and discuss these differences. We generate these results by performing a specificity analysis and generate a word cloud for each variable’s modality. For example, we show that non-motorized households in Quebec City have particular problems going to a cinema, the hardware store or visiting relatives and face a lot of waiting while the households of Strasbourg have difficulty with grocery and weekend getaways to popular destinations like the Vosges mountain range or villages. During our interviews, we have also discussed the daily mobility of these households for various reasons: work, shopping, visiting family and friends and leisure. Through similar analysis, we show the difference in discourse based on our variables. For example, while women seem to rely on carpooling and discuss specific bus routes, men seem to rely on car sharing and car rentals as well as the bicycle.

2016

Public Urban Transport, Mobility Patterns and Social Exclusion

Regina Witter

What are the social impacts of a new, less efficient public transport system in a city that is known for its inequality concerning access to daily activities and participation in urban life? More precisely, what are the implications of a re-regulated transport system, if the city has previously gone through a long period of deregulation? Are the changes limited to altered accessibility conditions, or are there further consequences for people's travel competencies, habits and mobility patterns? And what does that mean for the dissolution or manifestation of social inequality and risks of social exclusion? With a specific regard to these interests, this work specifically focuses on the case of Santiago de Chile. There the public transport policy passed from a period of complete de-regulation in the 1970s and 1980s to a period of re-regulation as of the 1990s. During the deregulation period, the services had been characterized by an uncoordinated oversupply of private busses that existed in parallel to the more expensive public metro. In order to suspend the stigmatization of bus-based transport as the 'mode for the poor', the sophisticated 'Transantiago' bus system was implemented in February 2007, which was modelled of the famous BRT system 'Transmilenio' in Bogotá. The Transantiago project included the total re-design of the network system and the private operating companies at one glance. It introduced new vehicles and infrastructures as well as an electronic ticketing system that combined the bus and metro systems in a tariff union. Unfortunately, the ambitious project failed, due to various political, technical and social reasons. Up until today, the acceptance and satisfaction of the inhabitants with Transantiago have been rather low. Being aware of the importance of the technical problems, this study concentrates on the social problems and the related impacts Transantiago has had on people's daily life. The research is done on the basis of three hypotheses that are strongly based on the concept of 'motility', i.e. the potential to be mobile, including the set of factors which enable spatial mobility (access, competencies and appropriation). The hypotheses are tested on the basis of a mixed approach that combines various qualitative methods with an 'ad-hoc' survey of 2000 households in five different areas of the metropolitan Santiago area. The survey results are analysed on the basis of various spatial and statistical procedures, including, among others, structural equation modelling. We first consider the relation between the differences related to mobility and the social differences during the period of deregulation and describe the major mobility patterns and habits developed during that time (hypothesis 1). Then we come to the Transantiago failures and the changes imposed on people's accessibility conditions, travel competencies, preferences and habits (hypothesis 2). Finally we also explore the impact the Transantiago system has had on people's daily life, more precisely on people's daily activities and the activity locations as well as the main travel modes used to reach these locations. Comparing people's current activity patterns and travel patterns with those of the deregulated transport period, we intend to reveal if Transantiago has aggravated or alleviated existing mobility inequalities and related risks of social exclusion (hypothesis 3). The results show that mobility patterns developed during the deregulated period have had a strong negative impact on people's ability to get used to and accept the sophisticated Transantiago system. Particularly people of low income, people of a lower education level, people without access to a private car and people who live in peripheral areas and don't have direct access to the metro were most heavily impacted. Sometimes, older people and women within these groups suffered more than younger adults and men. The initial difficulties have had a negative impact on the current evaluation and image of public transport, and on the other hand they have exacerbated already existing risks of social exclusion and segregation. Especially the more 'vulnerable' inhabitants have adapted their daily activity patterns and travel patterns. They travel less for job-related and leisure-related purposes; they prefer other modes to bus-based public transport and remain often closer to their place of residence than before the Transantiago implementation. Nonetheless, Transantiago has also had some positive impacts such as increased spatial mobility for inhabitants with direct access to the metro, low travel expenditures due to permanent operating subsidies as well as reduced environmental emissions and safety problems. After all, it is hardly possible to definitively determine if the current mobility-related and social inequalities are effectively a consequence of the Transantiago system. It is also unclear if these inequalities have today a more widespread impact than during the deregulated transport period. In general, throughout this study the important influence of income and social status on inhabitants' mobility conditions and travel behaviour is revealed. Alternative concepts related to residential preferences and urban lifestyles turn out to be less pertinent to the explanation of social differences in travel behaviour. This also means that transport policy aimed at equal mobility conditions can only give a contribution to social inclusion. Therefore, additional urban and social measures are needed. This work consists of six parts. Following the introduction (chapter 1), a broad theoretical framework is presented where the different topics of interest are discussed and examples of empirical studies are presented, with a focus on emerging economies (chapter 2): transport regulation and deregulation and recent trends in public transport policy and supply (2.1); the various spatial, social and individual determinants of travel behaviour and mobility patterns and the implications for transport research (2.2); mobility inequality as possible source of social exclusion, which calls for transport policy making with a focus on social equity (2.3). After having presented the research hypotheses and the methodology employed (chapter 3), the case study area of Santiago is introduced. In this context we describe the development from the deregulated transport period up until today with regard to four issues: the spatial and social structure of the city as well as the development of transport policy and people's mobility patterns (chapter 4). Each of the three hypotheses is analysed and evaluated on the basis of the own empiric works (chapter 5). The work concludes with a synthesis as well as some final remarks and implications for the development of transport policy in Santiago and other cities in emerging economies, where comprehensive transport changes are envisaged (chapter 6).

EPFL2012

Public Urban Transport, Mobility Patterns and Social Exclusion

Regina Witter

EPFL2012

Mobility practices of non- motorized households, the cases of Quebec City and Strasbourg

Dominic Villeneuve

2016

Living Without a Car

Dominic Villeneuve

EPFL2017