The Association between Urban Public Transport Infrastructure and Social Equity and Spatial Accessibility within the Urban Environment: An Investigation of Tramlink in London

Abstract

The pursuit of sustainability has been at the forefront of contemporary planning initiatives. However, most recent research has focused on the environmental and economic aspects of developing sustainable urban environment, whilst largely neglecting the social aspects. Contemporary political thinking in the UK often disregards the potential of the urban infrastructure to improve social equity. The aim of this study was to analyse the impact of transport infrastructure on a variety of social measures, in an empirical and ideologically unbiased fashion, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. We selected “Tramlink” as a case study: a light-rail system in the London Borough of Croydon which began operation in 2000. We used quantitative methods, including advanced spatial statistics, to produce a more detailed analysis of social equity than has been previously published. This acknowledges that determining localised issues can produce more informed and effective policy interventions. Our results demonstrate that the physical properties of transport infrastructure and the non-physical attributes of society, in combination, help to create opportunities for individuals to succeed. We also find that in order to reduce the negative effects of austerity, public money could be more effectively spent if diverted to areas that are most in need which can be highlighted through localised investigations.

Decision-Making in the Transport Sector: A Sustainable Evaluation Method for Road Infrastructure

“…Active accessibility variation increase (%) 19% SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY: Accessibility to key services and facilities is defined as a primary measure of social sustainability [70]. Potentially, the urban infrastructure can improve social equity [71]. The revamping of the EUR will lead to reductions in users' travel time; therefore, it will increase accessibility and thus, the social equity by about 19% in the study area.…”

Public transport accessibility and housing value uplift: Evidence from the Docklands light railway in London

“…There were 4,835 LSOAs in Greater London in 2011. The 2011 LSOA map is used as a basic boundary map in the analysis, which is in line with the previous study conducted in London by Cao and Hickman (2018) and Cuthill et al (2019). The resolutions of all data sets provided are at LSOA level.…”

“…Building extensive public transport systems is now an objective for many cities internationally, with large amounts of funding being used for this purpose. Improving accessibility by public transport is usually the most efficient and only possible way to deliver large volumes of passengers to and from the larger metropolitan cities, and is important to improving access to activities (Cao and Hickman, 2019;Cuthill et al, 2019;Handy and Clifton, 2001;Pagliara and Papa, 2011).…”

Multiple Utility Analyses for Sustainable Public Transport Planning and Management: Evidence from GPS-Equipped Taxi Data in Haikou

“…Duran-Micco et al (2019) [59] compared several experiments on PT vehicles and proposed a memetic algorithm to minimize both total travel time and CO2 emissions. Cuthill et al (2019) [60] investigated a light-rail system in London using quantitative methods and indicated that the physical properties of PT infrastructure and the non-physical attributes of society could help individuals to succeed when combined. Ko et al (2019) [61] took environmental aspects into consideration and proposed a mathematical analysis of the environmental factors of forming a platoon of smart vehicles.…”