Transport, Inequalities and Poverty

摘要

Western Europe, like other parts of the world, is experiencing major changes in regard to how human beings interrelate with the space they inhabit. In the field of transport, for instance, car ownership is seen as becoming commonplace. Even though the first motor car appeared over a century ago, and notwithstanding the spectacular upsurge in the number of cars per household in the 1970s, personal car ownership is a much more recent phenomenon that has led to a higher level of 'automobilization', which now goes hand-in-hand with the concept of 'car dependence;. Differing forms of transport no longer compete on equal terms. Nowadays, the motor car ranks highly among citizens' choices. Former predominant means of travel - buses and trains, bikes, walking - are to some extent having to prove themselves as alternatives, yet are widely disadvantaged by their failure to offer the same opportunities in terms of accessibility.