ABSTRACT

Access to transport for older people is inherently related to the right to lead an independent life and to participate in social and cultural life with dignity. Yet often transport planning strategies prioritise the smooth flow of urban commuters, while people over the age of 60 are at risk of experiencing marginalisation and inequality. In this paper, we consider the mobility patterns of a group of seniors who regularly travel by public transport to Sydney, Australia for more than an hour a day. We argue that geographical perspectives are important for understanding how disincentivising seniors from travelling at rush hour may result in a range of negative health and social outcomes. In this research we consider how seniors in fact may benefit from travelling in rush hour materially, socially, and emotionally. Drawing on the optic of mobility justice we examine the felt intensities of using public transport and the inequalities that manifest in corporeal density. This serves to highlight how agency enables people to go against policy aims to reduce senior travel at peak times and how mobility justice is a useful heuristic to dispute power dynamics in specific transport modes.

摘要

老年人获得交通工具与过独立生活和有尊严地参与社会和文化生活的权利有着内在的联系。然而，交通规划策略通常优先考虑城市通勤者的顺畅流动，而 60 岁以上的人则面临边缘化和不平等的风险。在本文中，我们考虑了一群老年人的流动模式，他们每天定期乘坐公共交通工具前往澳大利亚悉尼一个多小时。我们认为，地理视角对于理解阻止老年人在高峰时间出行可能如何导致一系列负面健康和社会后果非常重要。在这项研究中，我们考虑了老年人实际上如何从物质、社交和情感上的高峰时间旅行中受益。借鉴流动性正义的视角，我们研究了使用公共交通工具的感受强度和身体密度中表现出来的不平等。这有助于强调机构如何使人们违背旨在减少高峰时段老年人出行的政策目标，以及机动性正义如何成为一种有用的启发式方法来争论特定交通方式中的权力动态。