Alasdair Jones

More than A to B: the role of free bus travel for the mobility and wellbeing of older citizens in London

ABSTRACT This study contributes to the literature on mobility and wellbeing at older ages through an empirical exploration of the meanings of free bus travel for older citizens, addressing the meanings this holds for older people in urban settings, which have been under-researched. Taking London as a case study, where older citizens have free access to a relatively extensive public transport network through a Freedom Pass, we explore from a public health perspective the mechanisms that link this travel benefit to determinants of wellbeing. In addition to the ways in which the Freedom Pass enabled access to health-related goods and services, it provided less tangible benefits. Travelling by bus provided opportunities for meaningful social interaction; travelling as part of the ‘general public’ provided a sense of belonging and visibility in the public arena – a socially acceptable way of tackling chronic loneliness. The Freedom Pass was described not only as providing access to essential goods and services but also as a widely prized mechanism for participation in life in the city. We argue that the mechanisms linking mobility and wellbeing are culturally, materially and politically specific. Our data suggest that in contexts where good public transport is available as a right, and bus travel not stigmatised, it is experienced as a major contributor to wellbeing, rather than a transport choice of last resort. This has implications for other jurisdictions working on accessible transport for older citizens and, more broadly, improving the sustainability of cities.

‘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.

'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.

Health impacts of free bus travel for young people: evaluation of a natural experiment in London

Background We used the introduction of free bus travel for young people in London in 2005 as a natural experiment with which to assess its effects on active travel, car use, road traffic injuries, assaults, and on one measure of social inclusion, total number of trips made. Methods A controlled before–after analysis was conducted. We estimated trips by mode and distances travelled in the preintroduction and postintroduction periods using data from London Travel Demand Surveys. We estimated rates of road traffic injury and assault in each period using STATS19 data and Hospital Episode Statistics, respectively. We estimated the ratio of change in the target age group (12–17 years) to the change in adults (ages 25–59 years), with 95% CIs. Results The proportion of short trips travelled by bus by young people increased postintroduction. There was no evidence for an increase in the total number of bus trips or distance travelled by bus by young people attributable to the intervention. The proportion of short trips by walking decreased, but there was no evidence for any change to total distance walked. Car trips declined in both age groups, although distance travelled by car decreased more in young people. Road casualty rates declined, but the pre–post ratio of change was greater in young people than adults (ratio of ratios 0.84; 95% CI 0.82 to 0.87). Assaults increased and the ratio of change was greater in young people (1.20; 1.13 to 1.27). The frequency of all trips by young people was unchanged, both in absolute terms and relative to adults. Conclusions The introduction of free bus travel for young people had little impact on active travel overall and shifted some travel from car to buses that could help broader environmental objectives.

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

Evaluations of ‘natural experiments’ in public policy are typically considered ‘weak’ evidence. Challenges include: making credible claims for causal inference (internal validity); generalizing beyond the case (external validity); and providing useful evidence for decision makers. In public health, where experimental evidence is encouraged by funders and enjoys a degree of rhetorical favour, in theory if not practice, current guidance for evaluating natural experiments focuses largely on methods for strengthening internal validity. Using a case study of the evaluation of free bus travel for young people in London, UK, we demonstrate a pragmatic approach to strengthening both internal and external validity in evaluations through integrating the logic of quasi-experimental methods with inductive qualitative analysis. Combining theoretical and inductive analysis in this way to address questions of policy interest through evaluations of natural experiments may be fruitful, and have methodological advantages over randomized designs.

A tripartite conceptualisation of urban public space as a site for play: evidence from South Bank, London

Public space is a feature of the urban built environment that has received increasing attention in recent years. Discussion has focused on the theoretical decline of public space, as private and institutional forces take on increasing influence. At the same time, many such “in-between spaces,” even privately owned ones, are used and experienced as public on a daily basis. Few studies, however, have explored how spaces understood as public are used and practised as such. To address this gap in the literature this paper draws upon ethnographic data collected on the “South Bank” in London (United Kingdom) to argue that “play” is a recurrent trait of sociospatial practices enacted in public space. Three interrelated typologies of playful practices in public space are discussed: childs play, plays on meaning, and play as simulation.

PS02 “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

Background Recent years have seen increasing attention to ‘independent mobility’ as a determinant of children’s physical health and psychosocial development. Previous research, however, largely frames independent mobility as a matter of having parental permission to travel without adults. It also predominantly focuses upon walking any cycling trips in the local area by young children. We therefore aimed to extend the independent mobility literature by examining mobility on public transport, mobility beyond the local area and mobility by adolescents. For this we use as a case study the recent provision of universal free bus travel to all young people in London, UK. We argue that idea of independent mobility can usefully be situated within the broader conception of opportunity and process freedoms which underpin Amartya Sen’s influential ‘capabilities approach’ to human development. Methods As part of the On the buses study, 118 young Londoners (age 12–18, 65 females) took part in 43 in-depth interviews (group size 1–3, 61 individuals) and 10 focus groups (group size 4–8, 57 individuals). Interviews and focus groups elucidated tacit, or everyday, influences on and effects of young people’s transport mode choices. We analysed this data qualitatively, drawing on techniques from the constant comparative method, including initial micro-level open coding and an iterative approach to identifying and refining emerging conceptual categories. Results Free bus travel enhanced young Londoners’ capability 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 often seemed crucial as it meant that free bus travel was typically held by all of a peer group. This rendered buses a socially inclusive way for groups to travel and spend time together, thereby enhancing group-level capabilities. Conclusion We believe this attention to individual and group-level capabilities for self-determination provides the basis for a broader and more child-centered view of independent mobility than is typical in health research. The importance of the universal nature of the entitlement to free bus travel also provides an example of how policy interventions with universal coverage may have effects which are more than the ‘sum of the parts’ of alternative, targeted approaches.

Everyday without exception? Making space for the exceptional in contemporary sociological studies of streetlife

Over the last 20 years we have witnessed an increasing prevalence of ethnographic studies concerned explicitly with the social and cultural life, and production, of space and specifically of the urban public realm. In line with a wider trend, many of these studies seek to analyse urban public life through the prism of the ‘everyday’, using accounts of the ordinary to explore the ways that city streets are used and experienced. In this article the author seeks to interrogate this multifarious deployment of ‘everydayness’ in ethnographic work on urban ‘streetlife.’ This interrogation is both theoretical, exploring how the everyday became the privileged approach for studies of the street, and methodological, asking what is it about our methodological choices that lends itself to conceptualising public life as everyday, and what might we do differently? At the same time, the article draws on ethnographic work on London’s South Bank to open up a space to consider the exceptional in sociological studies of streetlife.