EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - "Promote bicycling, walking and public transport to improve chances for poor people"

"Promote bicycling, walking and public transport to improve chances for poor people"

08-06-2007

How can transport policy contribute to the goal of more inclusive cities? What role does the car play in ensuring mobility for all? The German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) has recently published a report on “Sustainable Urban Transport and deprived urban areas” presenting numerous good practices on promoting inclusion through better mobility. Difu-researcher Michael Lehmbrock comments on the report – stressing that people in deprived urban areas benefit most from the promotion of bicycling, walking and better public transport.

How can good urban transport contribute to socially cohesive cities?

Sustainable urban transport can reduce the unfavourable external effects of traffic in the whole city (air pollution, noise pollution, accident endangerment, land consumption). Particularly people who live at major roads profit from measures that promote sustainable urban transport. If the mobility chances for poor people are to be improved, bicycling, walking and public transport should be promoted.

Is a focus on improving the connectivity of deprived neighbourhoods to the surrounding urban areas (bringing people to labour markets) more important than stimulating economic activity in such areas (bring labour markets to people)?

It depends on the local situation. The availability of a car or a driving licence can be a condition for work. In order to avoid long trips, work places should be situated nearby. If sustainable urban transport is to be promoted, it is important to stimulate economic activities within or near deprived urban areas. But even if local economic activities get priority, connectivity should not be neglected.

Talking about sustainable urban transport one mostly thinks about public transport. What should be the role of automobile transport in the light of improving chances of people in deprived urban areas?

In many cases the use of a car is necessary. CarSharing is there a good solution, if not more than 20.000 km per year are driven. CarSharing also saves people the costs for the procurement of their own car. In some situations the distances for bicycling are too long and the demand for standard public transport is too small. For these cases new solutions are already developed, for example in the EU-project AMABILE. Solutions include new forms of public transport with call buses or minibuses.

What would be your advice to local authorities that seek to improve the economic perspective of peoples in deprived urban areas by investing in connectivity? What possible mistakes should local authorities be aware of?

The meaning of the development of traffic facilities from deprived urban areas to the centres with jobs should not be overrated. Local governments should rather pay attention to a good spatial distribution and a multi modal dispersion of traffic investments.

Links
Download “Sustainable Urban Transport and deprived urban areas”Visit the Difu website Visit the AMABILE website (in German)

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