Multimodal transport and potential encounters with social difference: A novel approach based on network analysis

ABSTRACT

Direct experience of social difference is crucial if lower levels of prejudice and greater social cohesion are to be achieved in our cities. Despite their key role of connecting places and people, transport infrastructures have scarcely been assessed as facilitators of encounters with social difference. Furthermore, urban contexts are progressively more complex due to the increasing relevance of transport multimodality along with the unequal degree of access to different transport modes. Building upon network analysis and consolidated accessibility measures, this study presents multi-accessibility as a concept and quantitative instrument to evaluate the potential encounter of difference in city spaces opened up by multimodal transport infrastructures. Multi-accessibility is also presented as a relevant and complementary policy avenue to enhancing social cohesion through transport planning and land use policies in the future. Two planning scenarios for the case of the Madrid metropolitan area illustrate the application, utility and interpretability of the instrument.

Acknowledgments

I thank three anonymous reviewers and Dr. Zachary Neal for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript. I am also grateful to the t-GIS research group (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) and Borja Moya-Gómez, who generously shared the TomTom private vehicle network-data and assisted with its analysis. Also, to my former colleagues at Consorcio Regional de Transportes de Madrid (CRTM), Antonio García Pastor, Javier Aldecoa, Domingo Martín, Maite Antón and Francisco Hernanz, who kindly assisted with the analysis of the public transport network. Last but not least, I am grateful to Fiona Westbury, Fellow of the Institute of Linguists, for proofreading the text.

Disclosure statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Jose Carpio-Pinedo

Jose Carpio-Pinedo is a researcher at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and a Research Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley’s City and Regional Planning Department. He has also been a visiting researcher at the São Paulo University’s Urban and Regional Economy Lab (NEREUS). His research ranges over urban proximity dynamics, walkability, multi-modal network analysis/accessibility patterns, land use and transport coordination, public space configuration, and retail location. His research received Spain’s National Pre-doctoral Special Award Certamen Arquimedes, 2014, and first prize in the Madrid City Urban Economy Research Contest (2016). Jose is also a planning and transport consultant, and has worked for Atkins Ltd., London, and the Madrid Public Transport Authority.