IJERPH, Vol. 21, Pages 422: Community Transport & rsquo;s Dual Role as a Transport and a Social Scheme: Implications for Policy

IJERPH, Vol. 21, Pages 422: Community Transport’s Dual Role as a Transport and a Social Scheme: Implications for Policy International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health doi: 10.3390/ijerph21040422 Authors: Léa Ravensbergen Tim Schwanen Community transport comprises diverse local, not-for-profit, and primarily volunteer-run transport schemes that operate across the United Kingdom. These schemes support the travel needs of thousands of people, most of whom are older, live in rural areas, and have few other transport options. Further, this transport sector is unique in that most schemes are designed, created, and run by older people themselves. And yet, community transport has thus far received relatively little attention in both policy and research. Using semi-structured interviews with community transport providers in Oxfordshire, this paper proposes community transport as a practice guided by phronesis and argues that it has been made to hold a dual role as both a transport and a social scheme. The transport it provides is unique in being made low-cost, flexible, and functionally accessible. It has also been made into a social scheme as it helps those with few other options, provides benefits that extend beyond the transport realm, and fosters community. Though this dual role means that community transport has many cross-sectoral benefits, this type of service provision is found to be overlooked in both national and local policy, which ha...
Source: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research