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Over the past decades, transport researchers and policymakers have devoted increasing attention to questions about justice and equity. Nonetheless, there is still little engagement with theories in political philosophy to frame what justice means in the context of transport policies. This paper reviews key theories of justice (utilitarianism, libertarianism, intuitionism, Rawls' egalitarianism, and Capability Approaches), and critically evaluates the insights they generate when applied to transport. Based on a dialogue between Rawlsian and Capability Approaches, we propose that distributive justice concerns over transport disadvantage and social exclusion should focus primarily on accessibility as a human capability. This means that, in policy evaluation, a detailed analysis of distributional effects of transport policies should consider minimum standards of accessibility to key destinations and the extent of which these policies respect individuals' rights and prioritize disadvantaged groups, reduce inequalities of opportunities and mitigate transport externalities. A full account of justice in transportation requires a more complete understanding of accessibility than traditional approaches have been able to deliver to date.

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This study aimed to explore older peoples' definitions of, and priorities for, a good quality of life for themselves and their peers. Nine hundred and ninety-nine people aged 65 and over, living at home in Britain, were interviewed for the study. Good social relationships were the most commonly mentioned constituent that gave respondents' lives quality (mentioned by 81 percent). Other important factors were social roles and activities, health, psychological outlook and well-being, home and neighborhood, finances, and independence. Poor health was most often mentioned as taking quality away from life (by 50 percent). Social relationships and health were judged to be the most important areas. Having health and enough money were the two most frequently mentioned things that would improve the quality of their own lives and those of their peers (though in different order of magnitude). The need for dynamic, multidimensional, and integrated models of quality of life in older age is suggested by these results.

The broad aim of the research presented here was to define the constituents and indicators of quality of life (QoL) in older age, in order to offer a more multidimensional and useful model of quality of life, based on the perspectives of older people themselves. This paper focuses on the extent to which self-evaluations of global QoL are influenced by health, psychological and social variables, and social circumstances. It reports the results of a national survey of the quality of life in people aged 65 and over, living at home in Britain. Multiple regression analysis with the self-evaluation of quality of life rating as the dependent variable showed that the overall model (Model 9) of QoL indicators explained 26.7% of the variance in quality of life ratings. This is sizeable given the amorphous nature of this concept. The main independent predictors of self-rated global quality of life were: social comparisons and expectations, personality and psychological characteristics (optimism-pessimism), health and functional status and personal and neighbourhood social capital. These variables explained the highest proportion of the variance between groups in their quality of life ratings. Socio-economic indicators contributed relatively little to the model.