European Economic
and Social Committee
When public transport is unavailable, unaffordable or unreliable, people can struggle to reach jobs, healthcare, education and other essential services. Nelly Unger, researcher at Öko-Institut, explains how transport poverty affects people across Europe; why women, older people and low-income households face particular barriers; and how better data and inclusive transport policies can help tackle the problem.
What are the main findings of your research on transport poverty, and what do they tell us about the scale and nature of transport poverty in Europe?
Our research shows that transport poverty is a widespread challenge across Europe, though it manifests differently depending on local and personal circumstances. It is not simply about mobility. Rather, it concerns whether people can achieve the mobility needed to participate fully in society. We distinguish four dimensions of transport poverty: affordability; availability; accessibility of essential services and goods; and adequacy of transport services.
Our findings reveal substantial differences between countries, regions and social groups, meaning that the transport poverty indicators assessed present very different figures depending on the dimension and country considered. In some countries, affordability is a key issue, while in others, the main problem is a lack of public transport services or long travel times. One finding is particularly striking: public transport use is often surprisingly low, with more than half of the population in most of the European countries using public transport less than once a month or never.
Our study Access denied: Transport poverty in Europe shows that in-depth, country-specific analyses are needed to identify regional drivers of transport poverty, enabling policymakers to implement suitable policy measures.
How can inadequate transport options prevent people from accessing jobs, healthcare, education and other essential services?
Adequate transport options are crucial for ensuring access to essential services and goods, such as healthcare, education and food, as well as economic opportunities, social networks and cultural activities. If transport is unavailable, unaffordable, unreliable or excessively time-consuming, or if the available network simply does not connect people to the right places, this directly contributes to social exclusion.
Our analysis highlights the importance of 'time poverty' in this context. In many countries, large proportions of the population avoid public transport because journeys take too long, and many commuters spend over an hour travelling each way. Such long and demanding journeys can restrict access to job opportunities, exacerbate the burden of unpaid care work and diminish participation in community life. It is therefore particularly important for countries to develop transport systems that enable adequate travel times for everyday life.
Who is most affected by transport poverty, and are there particular differences between urban and rural areas or between European countries?
Transport poverty is closely associated with broader socioeconomic disadvantage. Low-income households are particularly vulnerable because transport costs compete with other essential expenditures such as housing and energy. Socioeconomic characteristics such as gender and age also play an important role in how people are affected by and experience transport poverty.
We also observe important spatial differences. Rural residents often have limited access to public transport networks and services and must travel longer distances to access essential goods and services. However, transport poverty is not solely a rural phenomenon. It is also common in suburban and peripheral urban areas, where people often rely heavily on cars due to inadequate alternatives.
Your findings identify women and older people among those particularly affected by transport poverty. What specific barriers do they face, and how could transport planning better reflect their everyday travel needs?
Older people face particular accessibility-related challenges. Across all the countries examined, people aged 65 and over were more likely than younger adults to report avoiding public transport due to physical barriers or safety and security concerns.
Women are more likely than men to report safety concerns when using public transport and they often have more complex travel patterns linked to their caregiving responsibilities. Their daily mobility often involves multiple destinations rather than simply travelling between home and work.
Transport planning must therefore move beyond its traditional focus on commuting. More attention should be given to accessibility, personal security and the diverse travel patterns associated with care work. Gender-sensitive and age-inclusive planning can help ensure that transport systems better reflect the needs of all users.
What indicators should public authorities use to identify transport poverty, and how can they account for people who do not travel because they cannot afford to?
Our study developed and analysed 11 indicators covering the four dimensions of transport poverty: affordability, availability, accessibility and adequacy. While the results can provide European countries with a good starting point for identifying the most pressing problems in this context, further analysis using granular national data is crucial for identifying the regional and societal groups most in need. When using either our indicators or national indicators, it is important to consider a set of transport poverty indicators that cover all four dimensions, as no single indicator can capture the entire phenomenon, resulting in the omission of important aspects.
Representative survey data is particularly important for identifying those who suppress their need to travel because transport options are unavailable, unaffordable or unsuitable. Such individuals remain invisible in traditional transport statistics, which only focus on observed travel behaviour.
What needs to happen at EU, national and local levels to turn this policy framework into practical improvements?
Addressing transport poverty requires coordinated action at all levels of governance. At EU level, transport poverty is defined in the Social Climate Fund Regulation, and EU Member States are currently working on finding the right measures to tackle and monitor transport poverty in order to access the fund. While the Social Climate Fund Regulation is a crucial step in encouraging EU Member States to address transport poverty, national governments must also systematically incorporate transport poverty into wider social inclusion and mobility strategies to tackle the issue in the long term. Local and regional authorities play a particularly important role, as they have the best understanding of local mobility needs and are often responsible for many transport services.
In this context, it is important to highlight that when tackling transport poverty, conflicting interests may arise in the domains of transport, climate and social policy. However, climate policy is most successful when accompanied by social safeguards, and an inclusive, fit-for-use transport system must be climate-friendly, as negative externalities such as air pollution disproportionately affect the most vulnerable.
Nelly Unger is a researcher in the Resources & Transport Division at Öko-Institut. Her fields of work include the evaluation of policy measures in the transport sector, as well as the operation and development of the microsimulation models SEEK-Germany and SEEK-EU. A particular focus of her work is the analysis of distributional effects, such as the impact of CO2 pricing on vulnerable groups, as well as the identification and quantification of transport and energy poverty. She advises various stakeholders on this matter, including the German Federal Government, the European Commission and civil society organisations. Nelly Unger completed a Master's degree in Economics at the Humboldt University of Berlin and holds a Bachelor's degree in Socioeconomics from the University of Hamburg.