“Reducing car use is a hot potato”, says UK researcher Karen Lucas

Policy-makers wanting to reduce traffic
growth have not properly considered social equity issues,
says UK researcher Karen Lucas. She recommends the UK
increases accessibility to work, learning and
healthcare.

UK researcher, Karen Lucas, describes
policies to reduce car use as a “hot potato” in an
interview with euractiv.com as “the right to drive is too
much a personal freedom in western society for
politicians to think about trying to interfere”. She
warns that such policies can increase social exclusion if
they are not accompanied by measures to provide “services
at local level” and “more responsive and efficient public
transport”. 

Co-author of a UK government report on the links
between transport and social exclusion, professor Lucas
highlights that accessibility and availability of
transportation means are key elements of social
inclusion. Lack of accessibility acts as a barrier to
participation in work, learning, healthcare and other key
activities. 

Speaking at a seminar organised by the European
Federation for Transport & Environment on uniting
environmental and social policies in transport in May
2004, Karen Lucas stressed that we are living in a
culture of “increased mobility”. She believes that
reducing mobility and offering more local services would
be desirable but warns that the transition period would
be “a political nightmare”. 

The last twenty years have seen a dramatic growth in
both vehicle numbers and the distances driven in all
industrialised societies. Ever rising car-ownership has
led to increasing concerns about the harmful effects of
transport on the natural environment and quality of life
for groups without regular access to a car. But policies
to reduce car use, such as congestion charging, can be
very detrimental to the low-income groups. 

Read the 
full interview with Karen Lucas

. Senior Research Fellow at Westminster university, Karen
Lucas has contributed to a report analysing how UK
transport policies can be rethought to avoid social
exclusion. 

Read more with Euractiv

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