Mobility in Rural Ulster: Travel Patterns, Car Ownership and Local Services

Monitoring rural travel behaviour: a longitudinal study in Northern Ireland 1979–2001

“…Use of buses is either consistently low, as in the Sperrins, or slowly declining, despite the general stability of bus service provision, noted above. The consistent use of taxis in the Sperrins in 1988 was also noted earlier (Nutley and Thomas, 1992), since when it has declined, presumably due to rising car ownership and lifts, although their use to get to pubs and clubs in both areas is exceptional.…”

“…Table 11 does this for three indicative destination facilities in 2000/01. An equivalent table for the Sperrins in 1988 was given in Nutley and Thomas (1992); the relationships found in 1988/89 are seen to persist in the most recent surveys. These data confirm that people from non-car households walk to local grocery stores, while a third to a half get lifts, generally to more distant places, greatly exceeding those resorting to buses.…”

“…Contemporary with the 2000/01 surveys, a similar method was employed to assess accessibility in the two study areas on the basis of settlements within them ( Table 1 gives the definitions of criteria used). Equivalent results for 1988/89 can be found in Nutley and Thomas (1992). Relative to the optimum-where all places have satisfactory access under all criteria-the degree of access achievable in rural Antrim was 51.9%.…”

“…Household composition can be examined for evidence of disadvantaged groups, indicated by car ownership rates. Table 4 lists some household types that might be problematic (an equivalent table for the Sperrins in 1988 can be found in Nutley and Thomas (1992)). In both areas, vehicle ownership clearly rises by the number of working people in the household.…”

“…Also, perceptions of journey distances and times in 1979 were found to be grossly inaccurate (over-estimated) for places beyond the local area or not habitually visited. Results of the 1988/89 surveys in the Antrim and Sperrins areas (plus a third area) have been analysed by Nutley and Thomas (1992). This concentrated on the differences in mobility patterns between car owning and non-car owning groups, and on differences among the study areas.…”