Improving Rural Accessibility: A Multilayer Approach

Elisabetta Vitale Brovarone and Giancarlo Cotella
Additional contact information
Elisabetta Vitale Brovarone: Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST), Politecnico di Torino, 10125 Torino, Italy
Giancarlo Cotella: Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST), Politecnico di Torino, 10125 Torino, Italy

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 7, 1-20

Abstract: Rural territories are worse equipped than urban ones in terms of accessibility to services and opportunities, due to their scattered development and peripheral character. Increasing cuts to loss-making services in traditional public transport contributed to increased social inequality and marginality, in so doing undermining the livability of rural communities. In this light, improving accessibility is an essential prerequisite for the sustainable development of rural areas. Whereas demand responsive transport solutions are often seen as a panacea in circumstances where traditional services are not viable, their implementation is more challenging than it may seem, due to the potential barriers intrinsically related to the differential socioeconomic, cultural, and institutional features of places. Furthermore, enhancing transport offer is only one side of the multifaceted prism of rural accessibility, and the institution of effective multi-level and multi-sector governance mechanisms is a precondition to approach the mentioned challenges under a more comprehensive perspective. Drawing on the results of the European Territorial Observatory Network (ESPON) Urban-Rural Connectivity in Non-Metropolitan Areas (URRUC) project, the paper sheds light on this issue, exploring the accessibility challenges of rural areas and proposing a multilayer policy approach aimed at supporting decision-makers in improving rural accessibility across Europe.

Keywords: rural areas; accessibility; multilayer policies; governance; mobility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/7/2876/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/7/2876/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:7:p:2876-:d:341332

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().