‘We Can All Just Get on a Bus and Go’: Rethinking Independent Mobility in the Context of the Universal Provision of Free Bus Travel to Young Londoners

Abstract

This paper uses qualitative data from interviews with 118 young Londoners (age 12-18) to examine how the universal provision of free bus travel has affected young people"s independent mobility. Drawing on Sen"s capabilities approach, we argue that free bus travel enhanced young Londoners" capabilities to shape their daily mobility, both directly by increasing financial access and indirectly by facilitating the acquisition of the necessary skills, travelling companions and confidence. These capabilities in turn extended both opportunity freedoms (e.g. facilitating non-"necessary" recreational and social trips) and process freedoms (e.g. feeling more independent by decreasing reliance on parents). Moreover, the universal nature of the entitlement rendered buses a socially inclusive way for groups to travel and spend time together, thereby enhancing group-level capabilities. We believe this attention to individual and group capabilities for self-determination provides the basis for a broader and more child-centred view of independent mobility than the typical research focus upon travelling without an adult and acquiring parental permissions.

Integrating quasi-experimental and inductive designs in evaluation: A case study of the impact of free bus travel on public health

“…This article summarizes how the findings of the epidemiological and qualitative elements of our evaluation were brought together in the light of our initial logic model in order to provide as robust an evaluation as possible of the health impacts of the scheme, and one designed to be useful to decision makers in London and beyond. Detailed methods and findings of elements of the study are published elsewhere (Edwards et al, 2013;Goodman et al, 2014;Green et al, 2014aGreen et al, , 2014bJones et al, 2012). Here, we draw on selected findings to demonstrate how the qualitative analysis contributed to addressing some of the methodological and knowledge transfer problems generated by policy evaluations in general, and by evaluations of natural experiments in particular.…”

“…(F, 17) Cycling, in a context where few young people routinely use cycles for transport, is not conducive to sociability in the way that walking or taking the bus can be. In this context, free bus travel replaces walking for many short journeys because it can also be used to 'travel together', since everyone is entitled to a free bus pass (Goodman et al, 2014). Thus, an important element of 'the intervention' emerged.…”

Automobility reconfigured? Ironic seductions and mundane freedoms in 16–21 year olds’ accounts of car driving and ownership

“…We have included only relatively young adults: it is impossible to say whether their desires reflect specifically millennial orientations, or simply the time-limited preferences of younger adults for sociability with friends over, say, the pleasures of solo travel (see Goodman et al 2013; for how this preference is also evoked in stories of how bus travel can also generate independent mobility in the context of sociability). For those whose access to other spaces of sociability may be limited by rural location, financial constraints, or age-related exclusions, vehicles themselves can provide a rare opportunity for liminal, tightly bound physical environments that enable heightened emotional intimacy (see, for instance, Fjaer, Pedersen, and Sandberg 2016 on Norwegian high school graduates' use of buses for partying).…”

“…There has also been a resurgence of interest in public transport, with high income cities worldwide recognising that investment appears to leverage disproportionate drops in car usage (Newman and Kenworthy 2011). The meanings of urban public transport are also changing, with evidence from London, for instance, that pro-public transport policies have fostered a view that buses are for everyone, rather than a stigmatised mode for those unable to afford alternatives, with promising indications for futures in which automobility is no longer the unquestioned route to 'independent' travel (Goodman et al 2013). As Reese (2016) has noted, official policy discourses even in the USA now contain 'unsettled' narratives of automobility reversed, or radically curtailed, as well as narratives of its survival.…”

Addressing transport barriers to work in low income neighbourhoods: A review of evidence and practice

“…There is also evidence that spatial confidence can be enhanced indirectly as a result of schemes with a focus on the practicalities and affordability of travel. Goodman et al (2014) examined the effect of universal provision of free bus travel on young people's mobility in London. They found that as well as enhancing young Londoner's capabilities to travel by increased financial access, free bus passes also facilitated the acquisition of the necessary skills, travelling companions and confidence to make a journey by bus.…”