In the realm of transport planning and traffic management, mobility poverty is an emerging concept that is only sparingly grasped by the professionals working in the field. The everyday citizens are even less aware of the existence and meaning of this term, despite themselves often being directly impacted by mobility poverty’s negative effects.
To address this, the European Climate Foundation and Mobilissimus embarked on a journey to discover and map what mobility poverty represents.
Firstly, we organised a large data gathering effort across two representative case study areas: Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county in Hungary and the corridor between Brașov and Întorsura Buzăului (Brașov and Covasna counties) in Romania. Site visits followed by local focus groups highlighted these issues in-situ, with clear evidence of elderly people struggling to use the train services, cases of pupils giving-up high school education, ambulances not reaching emergency cases and residents in low paid local jobs with no local transport and depending on their neighbours for all trips that are not within walking distance.
In addition, we launched an online survey on the same theme, to collect a more representative view from across the country; whilst most respondents were from the case study counties, there was still a high proportion of answers from further afield following the same narrative about how people are impacted by mobility poverty.
We then interviewed transport professionals, local authorities and transport operators representatives, academics and NGOs active in the field of mobility to gather a more holistic view of the phenomenon and seek potential solutions. Their insights constituted the basis for the second key task of the project – developing a digital tool where input data about local transport (timetables, policies, frequency of services, inclusivity, ticketing, etc.) is used to identify and prioritise a set of recommendations. These recommendations should be seen as the starting point for a local action plan to tackle mobility poverty and enhance the transport strategies for a stronger community and more attractive public transport system.
The Survey and Solutions Toolkit represents the first step for authorities and operators in the process of receiving an impartial, critical-friend type of view, before spending time on in-depth assessments or paying consultancy fees. It should be seen as a conversation starter and as a tool for policy makers and activists for better transport to highlight the need for change.
Furthermore, to ensure everyone who can bring positive change has the necessary tools, we have embedded the research findings in several digital materials (video and leaflet format) to raise the level of understanding and the profile of the topic in the relevant circles. These materials illustrate the concept in a multilingual format (English, Hungarian and Romanian) and should be seen as the first step in a call to action for residents, local politicians, lobbyists, transport planners and operators and policy makers alike.
We are grateful for the very close cooperation of a wide range of stakeholders offering their insights during the early stages of data collection and for taking part in the interviews. Also, it was a privilege to collaborate with the national CIVINET teams - CIVINET Slovenia-Croatia-SEE, The CIVINET Czech and Slovak Republics, CIVINET Romania and Magyar CIVINET.
Client:
Completion timeline:
2023-2024
Subcontactors:
