Amid rapid urbanization in the early XXI century, Swedish countryside faced with 2 interconnected sociodemographic problems: depopulation caused by outmigration of the young and ageing of the remaining citizens. Nowadays, many rural municipalities commit to growing back their inhabitant figures and emphasize sustainable living environment for new generations. However, though modern countryside has the potential to provide quality hybrid and remote work conditions, as well as social services and care for their inhabitants, there are matters in which rural areas fall behind cities, and sustainable multimodal mobility is among them. This thesis explores the interconnection between pedestrian and cycling mobility infrastructure development and the attractiveness of a place for middle-aged people, willing to live outside the city. The goal of the paper is to identify public needs in commuting options for them and their families and align these inquiries to strategic planning goals and priorities. To achieve this, qualitative approach was selected to study common perceptions of mobility problems and development potential, as well as feelings and attitudes planners and local inhabitants express when discussing their personal and professional experiences of living and travelling in the countryside. Being guided by the intersectionality perspective, which requires inclusion and engagement of diverse parties into the planning process, the thesis attempts to reconcile the two perspectives on pedestrian and cycling mobility development in a small Swedish rural municipality of Vingåker and answer the question why it is important to address pedestrian and cycling mobility in rural areas to enhance rural repopulation potential.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-205048 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Kovbas, Ekaterina |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för tema, Linköpings universitet, Filosofiska fakulteten |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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