Transport and Social Exclusion

On one hand the rise in transport demand suggests that society is becoming increasingly mobile and accessing a greater choice of services. Problems arise, however, when this growth in demand is not matched by a credible and inclusive transport strategy.The increase in disposable income over the past 30 years has been accompanied by a rapid rise in car ownership and a centralisation of services. More recently, the largest supermarkets have shown a propensity to relocate or open new stores at large greenfield sites on the edges of urban areas.

All these changes have generated significant extra travel demand and public transport has been unable to keep pace.The result is that as people start to travel fur ther to fulfil their daily needs, a large proportion of society simply can- not access the health, shopping or employment facilities that so many of us take for granted.This group is socially excluded.