Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
35
Rural accessibility and transport
Stephen Nutley
issue in rural areas due to the inherent
characteristics of 'rurality' itself. These are a
relatively low population density, a dispersed
settlement pattern with low population totals at
any point, a scattered pattern of small service
outlets, a concentration of middle- and high-
order facilities in widely separated urban nodes,
and hence long and costly travel distances. In
pursuit of a 'normal' lifestyle, people need to
consume a range of goods and services, to get to
work, to make shopping trips, to use medical,
financial and information services, and to take
part in social and recreational activities. Under
rural conditions, only a small proportion of these
needs will be achievable within walking distance
of home (and even this makes certain
assumptions about health and physical fitness),
while a greater proportion will require some
form of
transport
. An aggravating factor is the
continuing trend of closures of economically
marginal consumer service outlets—shops, post
offices, etc. —in rural areas (Clark and Woollett
1990), which means that local residents need to
make
more
journeys than before. Poor access to
services in the transport sense, as well as in the
broader economic sense, contributes to a
syndrome of problems known as 'rural
deprivation' (e.g. Pacione 1995).
The same situation could be tackled from the
'transport' viewpoint. The ideal mode for
conditions of 'dispersed demand' is the privately
owned motor car, which rural dwellers in
affluent developed countries have adopted in
great numbers. Obvious advantages are freedom
INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM
Living in the countryside confers advantages and
disadvantages that are experienced in very unequal
proportions by different groups of people. Those
for whom the benefits outweigh the difficulties
include people who have control over rural
resources and people whose incomes are derived
elsewhere and who may have moved into the
countryside voluntarily to enjoy its environment
and amenities. Those for whom the difficulties
outweigh the benefits include people who are
dependent on rural resources, such as working the
land, but have no control over them. The latter
might be identified with 'traditional' communities
that have always lived in rural localities. Problems
of rural areas range from the macro-scale to the
extremely localised. The first type result from rural
areas' subordination to external forces, their
economic and political weakness, and their
peripherality (Marsden
et al
. 1993; Hoggart
et al
.
1995; Ilbery 1998). It is the local problems,
however, that bear upon the struggle for day-to-
day living, especially for the more vulnerable social
groups. Because of the nature of rural areas, the
activities that people habitually undertake include
many that involve making journeys to other places
for normal everyday purposes. While the ability
to make such trips may be taken for granted in
the city, in rural environments the difficulties of
doing the same are frequently so great as to cause
hardship and isolation for many people.
While
accessibility
as a spatial concept is
universal, it is made particularly acute as a social
