Developing Interdisciplinary Research into Practice for the Resolution of Transport Inequalities in Global South Cities

Institute for Transport Studies seminar with speaker Professor Karen Lucas.

Watch this seminar here

The presentation describes the networking activities and key findings of a GCRF sponsored project, which purposefully draws together academics, policymakers and practitioners to transcend the hitherto ‘siloed’ transport planning and development studies domains. The INTALInC (International Network for Transport and Accessibility in Low Income Communities) project seeks to promote ‘research into practice’ to highlights the transport and mobility needs of urban poor and socially vulnerable populations in Global South cities and to identify more effective solutions for meeting their travel needs. 

The eight deliberative workshops that formed the backbone of the research process have identified that women, children, older people and people with disabilities are the most severely affected by transport poverty. Overwhelmingly, the urban poor rely on walking as their main mode of transport, often travelling long distances to get from the peripheral urban slums where they live to their employment and other activities in the city centre. Badly designed transport infrastructures combined with high-levels of largely unregulated traffic expose them to numerous safety and health risks.  Their restricted accessibility to job, markets, education, healthcare and other welfare activities severely reduces their livelihoods and life chances. These wider social consequences of inequitable and unsustainable transport systems in Global South cities have been largely ignored by transport planners and social policy professional alike.

Watch other recent ITS Research Seminars:

"It's time" in Vancouver – Is equity the key to resolving the paradox of mobility pricing? by Dr Abraham Leung, Griffith University, Australia.

Exploring port and mode decisions for grain consolidators in Argentina. A behavioural model by Rodrigo Tapia, ITS, University of Leeds.

An introduction to Pedestrian in the Loop Simulation and the University of Leeds PEDSIM by Professor Richard Romano, ITS, University of Leeds