This article is the first of two papers that engage critically and productively with the relationship between the socio-economic transformations of cities, the differentiation of vulnerable groups within urban space and the distribution of transport services. This article undertakes a comprehensive review of the major conceptual and methodological approaches by which scholars and policy researchers have sought to address the connection between social disadvantage and access to transport. The article critically assesses the relative merits of various spatial analytical methodologies in illuminating social -transport links. The study finds that there is a need for greater sophistication in the use of analytical methods in transport research as well as an imperative for greater sensitivity to social differentiation within urban areas and relative to infrastructure and services. The article concludes by developing a method for combining spatial social and transport service data that is then deployed in the empirical case study reported in the second paper.

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The aim of this article is to identify how residential location affects travel patterns, and specifically how peripheral residential relocation impacts on individual travel patterns. The current research presents findings from a case study of Northwood, the largest new peripheral residential development located on the northern rural/urban fringe of Christchurch, New Zealand. During the 1990s a large amount of rural land was rezoned for urban development in Christchurch, the environmental consequences of which have led to continued political conflict particularly between regional and local tiers of government. In the light of such conflict we investigate how new residential developments, such as Northwood, have influenced changes in modal choice and distances travelled for employment and other purposes. Overall results show a minimal change in travel mode, which remained heavily dominated by the car. However, there was a substantial lengthening of travel distances after residential relocation, although this was found to vary by the purpose of the trip.

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