Keywords: Accessibility, transport poverty, well-being, capabilities approach, transport equity
Travel is known to be a key element that provides a way to access economic, social, and other essential
activities for people, which in turn can promote social and individual well-being. In this sense, it is crucial
to understand how certain groups perceive their daily accessibility, the experience of transport poverty,
and how this is related to their well-being. Transport poverty in the present study is defined and
composed of four different components: transport affordability, mobility poverty, accessibility poverty,
and exposure to transport externalities. If an individual endures at least one of the components, it is
understood that they are experiencing transport poverty.
It is still a challenge to identify transport poverty since there is no unified way to measure it, as it is
highly dependent on the definition adopted, the threshold, local context, transport planning, and land
use. In the Dutch context, some research identifies certain groups that are at risk of facing transport
poverty considering a sufficient threshold level of accessibility to jobs, however, the relationship with
well-being is not explicitly considered. The present study contributes to quantitative research on
transport poverty and its relationship with well-being in the Netherlands using perceived accessibility
and well-being data. Also, it brings the application of the capabilities approach to transport as an attempt
to connect accessibility and well-being. The capabilities approach is a proposition that argues that the
most important aspect of a person’s life is their freedom to choose which is dependent on their
capabilities set and influences their well-being. In transport literature, the application of the capabilities
approach frames accessibility as a capability.
The aim of this study is twofold. First, it examines the relations between perceived accessibility,
transport poverty, well-being, and socio-economic and transport characteristics. Next, it visually
explores the spatial distribution using maps of the different levels of perceived accessibility, transport
poverty, and well-being in Rotterdam and Utrecht.
The data used was part of the Mobimon project, in which 1058 residents from Rotterdam and Utrecht
between the ages of 18 and 70 years old answered a series of questions about their travel behaviour
and how they experienced the transportation system. The perceived accessibility data considered
accessibility to jobs and other key life destinations. Perceived transport poverty data is composed of
four different aspects: affordability, mobility poverty, accessibility poverty, and exposure to traffic
externalities. Perceived well-being data represents how individuals evaluate their lives and certain
domains of their lives. In addition, CBS and ODiN data were applied to the study to enrich the descriptive
analysis of the local context of both cities.
Perceived accessibility, transport poverty, and well-being variables were obtained by factor analysis
and reducing observed variables into latent ones. Because transport poverty was measured backwards,
the variable was named perceive transport adequacy. For investigating the relationship between socioeconomic and mobility characteristics, accessibility, transport adequacy, and well-being, t-tests,
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ANOVAs, and multiple linear regression were applied to the data. For the visual analysis, maps were
created to present the distribution of the different levels of the three latent variables.
The main conclusions reveal that age, household formation, income, migration background, use of
mobility aid, having a driver’s license, and car ownership have a relation to accessibility, transport
poverty, and well-being. In addition, the results about other private transport modes used and public
transport shed a light on the impact that they have on the dependent variables. Users of mopeds,
scooters and motorcycles have a positive relation to their perceived transport adequacy and well-being.
Regarding public transport, train users contribute to accessibility while metro and tram users perceive
their transport adequacy negatively and bus users contribute to well-being. Accessibility and transport
poverty results also show a positive relationship to the perceived well-being of an individual. An
unexpected result from this study shows that when it comes to gender, women have a more positive
perception of their accessibility and are less likely to experience transport poverty compared to men.
The maps from Rotterdam and Utrecht show some patterns when it comes to the distribution of different
levels of perceived accessibility, transport poverty and well-being. Usually, the same areas that present
low levels of one of the variables also present low levels of another variable. Rotterdam shows similar
patterns of perceived accessibility, transport adequacy and well-being, with regions located to the east
and north part of the city presenting higher values. All the variables in Utrecht reach an average value
higher compared to Rotterdam. Regarding the distribution in Utrecht, the southeast and centre present
the highest values, followed by some areas in the north and west. Although this spatial distribution is
identified, it is a geographical aggregate measurement, and accessibility, transport poverty and wellbeing should be disaggregated at a personal level rather than a geographical level.
The results from this study contribute to the understanding of the experience of transport poverty in the
Dutch context and how it is related to perceived well-being of individuals. The literature review and
methodology adopted provide insight into the adoption of the capabilities approach to transport and
mobility. The findings may provide useful information for local governments, planners and researchers
to incorporate another perspective and bring social innovation to transport policies and planning.
Practice recommendations aim in promoting well-being for the individuals, and not only to increase
levels of accessibility. Recommendations for future research in the Dutch context include expanding
the analysis of transport poverty and well-being to other regions, such as rural areas and analysing the
causal relations between the variables.