Publication
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