A lack of affordable and accessible public transport is having a serious effect on low-income households and reducing people’s ability to find work, according to campaigners.

The report summarises three separate pieces of research into the links between transport, poverty and social exclusion.

Key points

• Those on low incomes rely more on bus services: half of the poorest fifth of the population don’t have a car, rising to more than two-thirds of job-seekers.
• Improving transport services and making them affordable and accessible helps to tackle social exclusion.
• Transport poverty needs to be carefully defined: if simply defined as, say, spending more than 10 per cent on motoring and other transport costs, it would mean those in the highest income brackets are most in poverty.
• Low-income communities are more likely to be killed or seriously injured on the roads, face worse air quality, and have higher exposure to other negative impacts of transport.

Source: Transport, Accessibility and Social Exclusion, Campaign for Better Transport
Links: Report | CBT press release