Variant Concept of Transportation-Disadvantaged: Evidence from Aydin, Turkey, and Yamaga, Japan

Abstract

Transportation-disadvantaged groups have been defined in previous studies as those who are low income earners, are family dependent, have limited access to private motor vehicles and public transport services, and are obliged to spend relatively more time and money on their trips. Additionally the disabled, young, and elderly are commonly considered to be among the transportationdisadvantaged. Although generally this definition seems correct, it is not specific enough to become a universal definition that could apply to all urban contexts. This paper investigates whether perceptions of travel difficulty vary as does the definition of transportationdisadvantaged in socioculturally different urban contexts. For this investigation, the writers undertake a series of statistical analyses in a case study of Yamaga, Japan, and compare the findings with a previous case study, in which the same methodology, hypothesis, and assumptions were applied to a culturally and demographically different settlement in Aydin, Turkey. After comparing the findings observed in Aydin with the statistical analysis results in Yamaga, this paper reveals that there can be no detailed, universal definition of the transportation-disadvantaged. The writers conclude that the characteristics of the transportation-disadvantaged are not globally identical, and policies and solutions that work in one locality may not have the same results in another sociocultural context.

Investigating the interplay between transport, land use and the environment: a review of the literature

“…At the same time, many academics and decision-makers have appreciated the importance of integrating urban and infrastructure (more particularly transport) development to achieve a more sustainable urban development (Newman and Jennings 2008;Yigitcanlar 2010a, b;Goonetilleke et al 2014). This lead into development of various methods to assess and measure the integration of transport and land use (Yigitcanlar and Dur 2010;, examine the transport disadvantage levels (Duvarci and Yigitcanlar 2007;Duvarci et al 2011), analysis of existing travel patterns and trends (Yigitcanlar et al 2007b;Zhao 2010) and also impacts on the natural environment (Alam et al 2006;Tuzkaya 2009;Liao et al 2013). On top of these, the papers of this Special Issue reports new empirical approaches and investigations from different parts of the world that contributes to the wealth of knowledge in investigating the interplay between transport, land use and the environment.…”

Australian baby boomers switched to more environment friendly modes of transport during the global financial crisis

“…fewer trips, less time invested in travelling) translating to reduced time spent travelling. These impacted travellers faced the risk of being excluded from society (Social Exclusion Unit 2003; Duvarci et al 2011;. Third, some people behave more cautiously and economically not because they experienced a lower level of income or lost their jobs but due to the fear of uncertainty (i.e.…”

“…it does not tell us the behavioural dynamics of different groups in a society due to the GFC. If elasticities are modelled as fixed effects, then the average elasticity may fail to capture an affect felt by disadvantaged groups (see Duvarci and Yigitcanlar 2007;Duvarci et al 2011). So a research approach might be to test random effect elasticities or isolate disadvantaged groups and examine their elasticities.…”

Transportation disadvantage impedance indexing: A methodological approach to reduce policy shortcomings

“…The common characteristics of disadvantaged populations are extensively discussed in the literature-see Church et al (2000), Hine and Grieco (2003), Hine and Mitchell (2003), Duvarci and Yigitcanlar (2007), and Duvarci et al (2011). While mostly used interchangeably, TDA and transport-related social exclusion are not necessarily synonymous with each other.…”