'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

Anna Goodman, Alasdair Jones, Helen Roberts, Rebecca Steinbach and Judith Green

Mobilities, 2014, vol. 9, issue 2, 275-293

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.

Date: 2014
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17450101.2013.782848 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:taf:rmobxx:v:9:y:2014:i:2:p:275-293

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rmob20

DOI: 10.1080/17450101.2013.782848

Access Statistics for this article

Mobilities is currently edited by Professor Kevin Hannam, Professor Mimi Sheller and Professor John Urry

More articles in Mobilities from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().