Developing and building cities in a sustainable way is essential in modern day planning. A huge factor that influences this is the transport sector. The growing discourse of sustainable mobility is transport researchers answer to this but the lack of a social sustainability perspective motivates research in relation to transport equality. The aim of this thesis is to increase the understanding of transport equality in Scania and contribute with insights primarily of how planning measures can be developed and consequences managed. To investigate the phenomenon, we look at how the sustainable mobility discourse affects transport equality with a focus on Scanias rural areas. We mainly examine cycling and public transport as two sustainable means of transport and how various priorities between and within these modes affect equality. Through interviews with both planners and travellers we establish an understanding of the phenomenon from two different perspectives. The study shows that general goals for increased share of travels by bicycle and public transport are governing traffic planning in Scania. Based on this, we argue that sustainable mobility is considerably more influential than the transport equality perspective. One strategy that clearly shows this is the dominance of the ridership goal in public transport planning. Geographical coverage has a lower priority compared to increasing the share of travels. The study concludes that there is a car dependency in rural Scania. The car is considered the obvious mode of transport due to flexibility, dangerous cycling conditions and the limited range of public transport. The poor public transport service can be seen as a direct result of the ridership goal. Resources from routes with less demand are reallocated to stronger routes and rural traffic is negatively affected as a result. There is also an understanding among travellers that service along rural routes are expensive and therefore not as justified by planners. However, this understanding among travellers is not accepted in the same way when it comes to the limited bicycle infrastructure. There is a strong wish for improved bicycle connections between small towns and cities, however the study reveals legal and organisational obstacles to the construction of bicycle infrastructure outside urban areas.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-51768 |
Date | January 2022 |
Creators | Adell Duveborn, Maja, Eriksson, Arvid |
Publisher | Malmö universitet, Institutionen för Urbana Studier (US) |
Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
Language | Swedish |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
Format | application/pdf |
Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
Page generated in 0.3666 seconds