‘Unequal Mobilities’ in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area: Daily Travel Choices and Private Car Use

Abstract

-Mobilities have been looked at in increasingly greater depth over the last few decades, posing a growing set of theoretical and methodological problems for urban studies. One of the approaches being adopted in this field is the consideration of the relationship between social inequalities and various different mobility conditions. The present article seeks to demonstrate the extent to which mobility behaviours of residents of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area vary in accordance with a range of inequality variables, such as gender, education, social class, and age, thus generating clearly marked social profiles. Special attention is paid to car use. Statistical analysis of a questionnaire applied to 1,500 residents shows that regular car use is still relatively circumscribed to one social group, to which it offers the advantage of less time spent on daily travel, notwithstanding the increased costs. On the other hand, populations who regularly use public transport are at a disadvantage, spending more of their day travelling from one place to another.Keywords: Social inequalities; mobilities; metropolitan space; transport; car use. Palavras -chave: Desigualdades sociais; mobilidades; espaço metropolitano; transportes; automóvel. RESUMO -'MOBILIDADES DESIGUAIS RÉSUMÉ -DES «MOBILITÉS INÉGALES» DANS LA RÉGION DE LISBONNE:PARCOURS JOURNALIERS ET CHOIX D'UN TRANSPORT PRIVÉ. Les études sur la mobilité ont été approfondies au cours des dernières décennies, en posant ainsi aux sciences sociales de nombreux problèmes théoriques et méthodologiques nouveaux. Un de ces thè-mes est celui du rapport entre les inégalités sociales et les divers types de mobilité. On a cherché à démontrer en quelle mesure les habitudes et les coûts de transport concernant les habitants de l' Aire Métropolitaine de Lisbonne, diffèrent en fonction d'un ensemble de variables -le genre, la scolarisation, la classe sociale, l'âge -définissant des profils sociaux nettement différenciés. On a insisté sur l'usage des voitures individuelles. L'analyse statistique, basée sur un questionnaire appliqué á 1500 personnes, permet de conclure que l'usage habituel d'une voiture personnelle continue à être circonscrit à un certain groupe social, lui permettant de perdre moins de temps dans les parcours journaliers, mais au prix d'un coût plus élevé. En effet, ceux qui utilisent régulièrement les transports en commun perdent davantage de temps dans leur parcours.

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“…The sampling was 'simple random', that is, it is a non-probabilistic sample, but fulfilling the levels of confidence and precision recommended in quantitative studies (Carmo and Ferreira, 1998). The survey was completed between 17 April and 15 May 2020, and the declaration of free and informed consent of all participants was guaranteed.…”

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“…Delhi appears locked into an interdependent relationship between car use and urban planning, reproducing socio-spatial inequalities and forms of exclusion within a landscape of power dominated by a neo-liberal model of economic globalisation (see do Carmo et al 2017;Tran & Schlyter 2010;Freund & Martin 2007). Embedded within the city's socio-material structure (Freund & Martin 2007), cars appear entitled to pavements, to communal space, to former gardens, to intervene in the daily life of residents like Gauri.…”

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