Increasing the Viability of Socially Necessary Transport Systems

This paper describes the background and implementation of a project designed to improve the viability of a bus service intended for the elderly and disabled in London. People who are disadvantaged often experience serious difficulties in getting around. They are much less likely to have access to a car than the general population. Their only means of travel are public transport services which may not be available to the whole community, or could be unaffordable for people on low incomes or even not accessible at all for elderly and disabled people. Problems of this kind make a particularly significant contribution to social exclusion and make it difficult for people to get work or access critical services on which many depend, including healthcare, learning and shops. They can also contribute powerfully to feelings of isolation and insecurity and prevent people taking part in a wide variety of everyday activities. The main intention of this research is to deliver a concept that could be implemented in other contexts and other areas to help local authorities provide accessible, free transport to these groups of society by running revenue-generating bus services. This could be achieved by using the vehicles to cater for time-specific demand such as morning/evening runs to schools, or industrial estates, commercial centers, employment centers, hospitals, or to operate as feeders from/to interchange points of other modes of transport; like rail stations. The example provided is from London’s Camden Council and University College London’s Accessibility Research Group, who have jointly found an innovative way of integrating community transport with school travel. This scheme which demonstrates cost and operational effectiveness uses a single resource to meet the needs of different groups of the community.