Negotiating the Transport System: User Contexts, Experiences and Needs

The links between transport and social inclusion/exclusion have become of great interest to policy makers and academics alike. Through the use of detailed case studies based on an innovative multi-method approach and an emphasis on small scale interventions and their everyday consequences, this volume is vital reading for anyone wishing to make sense of the complex issues involved.Professor John Preston, University of Southampton, UK.By combining focus groups and interviews with innovative research techniques, such as web-based discussions and Q methodology, this book provides insights into the daily experiences of those using the British transport system. Despite an entitlement to a basic level of mobility, travel decision-making can be more complex for members of marginalised groups - this book therefore examines the complexities of travel amongst different social groups. The complex nature of travel for different social groups is the starting point for this book's investigation of the experiences of the extremely socially marginalized, compared to those who are fully included. By comparing the impacts of transport on individuals at different points on a scale of social inclusion/exclusion, the book reveals the nuanced and textured ways in which transport is embedded in people's lives and lifestyles. By analysing people's lived experience of transport, rather than focussing on economic or engineering factors, the book provides useful new insights into future transport needs. It makes a compelling case that transport-related social exclusion has been neglected by local and regional policy makers and puts forward suggestions for best case practice for the future.Contents: Negotiating the transport system: an introduction: Transport and social inclusion: the literature and policy background; Research approach and methodology; Transport and social inclusion: the urban experience; Transport and social inclusion: the rural experience; Revealed perspectives: common themes and disparate discourses; Contemporary transport issues and contexts: theoretical, methodological and policy and planning implications; Appendices: interview guide; principal participants in study; Consolidated bibliography; Index.About the Author: Fiona Raje is a Senior Lecturer at Newcastle Business School, part of Northumbria University, UK. She was previously a researcher at the Transport Studies Unit at the University of Oxford, UK. Her current work is in travel and tourism, specializing in aviation and the Caribbean.