Thibault Isambourg (p), Louafi Bouzouina, Dominique Mignot

Louafi Bouzouina

Mobility is essential for social life. On the other hand, due to its essentiality, it is also potentially subject to inequality risks. Hence, it is crucial to study the repartition of the mobility capacities among individuals, that can be captured by the concept of accessibility. Accessibility, as the ultimate “potential for interaction”, depends on both context and individual parameters (Martens, 2016). Our focus is centred on the spatial potential for accessing jobs in deprived neighbourhoods in France.
More precisely, we aim to address two key questions: do lower-income neighbourhoods suffer from reduced accessibility compared to similar neighbourhoods (but less deprived)? And do neighbourhoods with comparable accessibility levels exhibit common characteristics?
To investigate these questions, we employ an efficient public transport accessibility modelling. This allows us to estimate the time individuals need to access to jobs in the urban area. Subsequently, we conduct empirical analysis based on the modelling output. We will determine if accessibility significantly differs in these neighbourhoods using statistical models like regressions. Multivariate statistics such as clustering will highlight possible patterns and links between neighbourhoods.
This study serves as an initial step, calling for comprehensive exploration of access inequalities. Developing a tool that easily provided accessibility information (and deprivation) in every poor neighbourhood will empower planners to effectively target their policies. It will also contribute to extending the classification previously developed at a broader scale. In-depth accessibility modelling can incorporate more details related to the specificities of low-skilled jobs prevalent in these neighbourhoods.

Gokcen Yilmaz (p)

Thibault Isambourg

The transportation sector is one of the key elements of regional economic growth. For example, most cities in the world have access to natural infrastructure, such as a port, that facilitates the movement of production factors and goods. Canal networks in Britain and railroads in the United States are the hallmarks of the industrial revolution. However, in economic theory, the traditional way to model transportation is through iceberg costs that take its absence rather than its presence into account. This method implies that the transportation sector facilitates agglomeration through increasing factor mobility. Its drawback is the assumption of free movement within a region. However, this is not necessarily the case between the agriculture and manufacturing sectors. One reason for adopting the approach of iceberg transport costs is the complexity of conceptualizing transportation as a type of consumption good. As a result, it enters the individual utility as a factor that reduces the amount of an imported good. This study proposes an alternative method that treats transportation output as complementary to agricultural goods within a region. This attains constant returns to scale for the latter and motivates the growth of the manufacturing sector there. Benefiting from this feature and using a spatial equilibrium model with two regions, this study examines the impact of public investment in transportation on the formation of city systems. The characteristics of the model lead to a spatial equilibrium in which the region with a better transportation sector has the highest manufacturing output. This implies that public expenditure on the transportation sector can stimulate regional growth by complementing a lagging sector’s output.

Kuniaki Sasaki (p), Ayako Taniguchi, Yung-Hao Chang, Airi Nishiyama, Yumeka Shibuta

Gokcen Yilmaz

In Japan, traffic collisions involving the senior driver have become a social problem. Government has been encouraging older drivers to surrender their driver's licenses. However, a study that compare the frequency of going out and subjective well-being between the senior people who surrendered their driver's license and those who renewed their license and continue driving showed that the latter were more active and had a higher subjective well-being. In order to help the senior people stay active and well-being, this study focuses on "skill-compensatory driving (SCD)," which is the practice of refraining from driving at night, in bad weather, and over long distances as an alternative of the surrendering driver’s license. We will present two case studies focusing on this approach and discuss effective measures to promote SCD.

(1) What kind of people and what motivations drive SCD?
In June 2023, a web-based survey was conducted among 1,000 drivers aged 65 and older in Japan. The survey revealed that 30-40% of senior drivers are skill-compensated drivers, and among drivers who are not skill-compensated drivers, about 50% have never considered the pros and cons of SCD. It was also found that men tended to accept SCD when encouraged SCD by their peers, while women tended to do so when encouraged it by their spouses.

(2) Will senior driver training courses promote SCD?
A survey was conducted in Autumn 2023 at driving schools in Ibaraki Prefecture among those who had taken courses for senior drivers. The survey was administered twice before and after the course to examine changes in attitudes towards SCD. The results showed that there was no significant difference in all participants who took the course. However, senior people who drive every day significantly changed their attitude of avoiding night driving and driving in bad weather when they received instruction in the actual driving course. This indicated that older people with more driving experience will be encouraged to the SCD only when they got suggestion from instructors during the actual driving course.

These studies suggest that SCD is not common among senior drivers in Japan, and training courses for them may not have much effect to promote SCD. If society wants to reduce collisions involving senior drivers, it needs a comprehensive senior citizen communication program.

Louafi Bouzouina (p), Isabel Cunha, Thibault Isambourg, Dominique Mignot

Kuniaki Sasaki

Cities around the world are implementing policies and strategies to promote more sustainable and accessible transport systems to deal with the pressure of climate change and create carbon-neutral, vibrant, attractive and environmentally-friendly urban spaces. In response, the 15-minute city concept has been advocated since the COVID-19 outbreak as a suitable framework for promoting active travel in urban environments. This model expects opportunities and activities to be accessible in sustainable journeys of up to 15 minutes.
However, scholars suggest that this framework neglects socio-spatial interactions, such as rising land values and gentrification, which limit social interaction and exacerbate social exclusion. Likewise, little is known about the impact of this model on peripheral areas and deprived neighbourhoods. Based on empirical evidence indicating that the mobility patterns of the poorest decile mostly fall within a 15-minute threshold, this study argues that deprived neighbourhoods could serve as a test bed to examine the dynamics of territorial and peripheral mobility in order to better understand the mobility patterns of disadvantaged social groups.
To further explore these phenomena, this study employed a comparative quantitative analysis focusing on metropolitan areas and deprived neighbourhoods in France, assessing mobility and accessibility disparities. The analysis was based on representative data collected through the French national mobility surveys of 2008 and 2019. A binary logit model was then applied considering factors covering journeys, individual socio-economic characteristics and place of origin to examine walking trends in deprived areas in more detail.
The results suggest disparities in accessibility between metropolitan regions and deprived neighbourhoods, with no significant differences in terms of journey times. Shorter journey distances are associated with the potential use of active modes. Although there was a general increase in walking trips in privileged and deprived neighbourhoods, the latter saw an increase in the use of individual motorized vehicles. Increased walkability in deprived areas may indicate an improvement in local activities and land use diversity, leading to a closer attachment between inhabitants and the local community.