Congestion charging involves changing the physical infrastructure and the services it affords. The purpose of CHIME is to develop methods for assessing the consequences of such change for social-spatial inclusion and exclusion. What might the inclusionary/exclusionary impact of such schemes be, for whom, and how might that impact be revealed and assessed?
Starting from first principles, we tried to identify a range of measures that would, in fact, relate to social-spatial inclusion and exclusion, defined in terms of the tripartite model. Building on the information and ideas presented above, we now outline a couple of plausible and technically viable exercises that could be undertaken with selected Local Authorities and which would provide a more encompassing picture of social-spatial inclusion/exclusion.
Plotting resources
Ward or even post code level data on household income, predicted access to the internet, access to mobile telephones, car availability and ‘time’ (roughly approximated in terms of life course, some stages being more ‘harried’ (see Southerton, 2001; Southerton, Shove and Warde, 2001) than others), could be analysed and combined in different ways to explore the relationship between these variables. This would allow us to plot distributions of, for example the time-rich/cash poor and the time-poor/cash rich, to identify those with a full range of such resources as compared to those with only a few, and so on. Such an exercise would generate better understanding both of the distribution and likely combination of social- spatially relevant resources and an appreciation of how Local Authority populations are provided for in these respects. This would permit identification of social groups likely to have specific social-spatial relevant resources, or combinations of such.
Plotting aspects of social-spatial and temporal access
Access mapping exercises like those undertaken by Friends of the Earth for Bradford could be extended to take account of temporal variation in the frequency and timing of public transport. This, together with existing data on traffic flows and car availability, could be used to produce time-sensitive pictures of what we refer to in chapter 4 below as the ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ spots of time and space with respect to public and private transport.
Resources and infrastructures in combination
Together, the two exercises outlined above could be used to identify ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ places and populations. For example, it might be possible to identify areas/times in which only those with high levels of relevant social-spatial resources could reach distinctively ‘cold’ (i.e. poorly served) areas at specific times of day. Equally, people close to ‘hot’ spots - i.e. rush hours and rush places - may not suffer from social-spatial exclusion despite lacking what might be otherwise important social-spatial resources.
In combination, secondary analyses of this kind could help Local Authorities focus attention when thinking about assessing the social-spatial impact of congestion charging schemes. This would have the further benefit of actually testing the relation between transport-related social-spatial inclusion/exclusion and that represented in composite indices of multiple deprivation. It may be that there is considerable overlap, but maybe not. This is an empirical question that could be explored. On both counts, such tests are still worth pursuing.
However, the understanding of patterns of social obligation and compulsions to proximity remains elusive. We have not found relevant research or material that would allow us to estimate this essential dimension of the theoretical model. In the next chapter we explore some travel and time dimensions of social obligation resulting from what we term the compulsion to proximity.
4.1 Introduction
Building on the idea that patterns of mobility have to do with changing patterns of social life and urban development, this chapter has two ambitions. One is to articulate and further explore the social dimensions and determinants of travel, concentrating especially on aspects of spatial and temporal co-ordination. We address this issue from various angles, thinking about the collective ordering of space and time and about how individuals schedule and organise their own mobility within the context of given infrastructures. The second goal is to consider the implications of this discussion for developing ‘integrated’ transport strategies and for Local Authorities’ capacity to influence the relation between space, time, mobility and social inclusion/exclusion.
As a specific example from interviews conducted, the adoption of ‘parking control’ by local authorities is explained as a conscious intervention to discourage ‘commuter parking’ (which ties up space inefficiently for long time periods) in favour of ‘leisure parking’ (by tourists or shoppers, who use the spaces for efficiently short times whilst directly contributing to urban centres). Since proposals of this kind tamper with physical and social systems and associated distributions of space and time, they cannot be understood in isolation. In anticipating the operation of such schemes it is necessary to consider how people in their increasingly complex and networked lives juggle time and money in order to satisfy various ‘compulsions to proximity’ (relating to the social networks within which they are embedded), given that is the opportunities and constraints engendered by the transport infrastructures which surround them.
We begin by outlining some of the ‘social’ processes that determine travel flows and structure the social-technical-temporal properties of transport systems as a whole. Our next step in is to organise these ideas in terms of a distinction between the ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ spots of space and time. This framework underlines the relation between rush hours, rush places and calmer, less dense, locations and times. It also shows the complex intersection of individual and collective systems of mobility. We subsequently turn specifically to the importance of ‘time’ for understanding travel, transport infrastructures and congestion. A wide range of such times is discussed with regard to households, infrastructures and local authorities. Further discussion of the relation between time and mobility leads us to consider social divisions that are implicit in and reproduced through infrastructural change. We review alternative styles of policy intervention, each of which draws upon different notions of need, and each has specific implications for the long-term density and distribution of hot and cold spots within the infrastructures of space and time.