Expert workshop on 9 October, 2024
The HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences organized a Transport Poverty Expert Workshop on 9th October 2024 at the Human Research House in Budapest.
Transport poverty is an issue of growing interest across a range of disciplines, including both the difficulty of affordability of transport costs and the lack of accessible transport infrastructure. Transport poverty can contribute to the social exclusion of the households concerned and even to the social and economic deterioration of whole communities and regions by making it difficult or even impossible to access the institutions and services necessary for social inclusion and progress (e.g. employment opportunities, quality education, health care). Transport poverty often goes hand in hand with energy poverty, i.e. the inability to meet household energy needs. However, while the issue of household energy supply and energy prices is constantly in the spotlight, the problem of transport poverty in Hungary has so far received much less attention.
The main objective of the workshop was to bring together professionals from different disciplines (transport professionals, social scientists working on spatial-social inequalities, vulnerable groups, energy poverty) who are directly or indirectly involved in the topic, to learn from each other's research and to better understand the state of transport poverty in Hungary and to identify issues where further research is needed. The focus of the workshop was on the accessibility, quality, and affordability of transport services in Hungary, the consequences of the lack of accessible and affordable transport options, and related policies, with a particular focus on rural areas.
The event was attended by 30 participants including transport experts, social scientists, and transport service providers. During the first half of the three and a half hour workshop, participants listened to presentations and then each had the opportunity to make brief contributions, reflecting on the issues raised from their own professional perspective. In the second half of the event, participants in small groups shared their experiences on four themes and formulated the directions they would like to see for transport and social policy.
Transport poverty is an emerging topic and a complex one, linked to aspects of access, affordability, accessibility, as well as the time needed to travel. The aspect of access depends on the state of infrastructure, while affordability depends on the ability of a person to cover the transport costs. Improving transport services is linked to urban development including public transport development, and tax reforms. Small places outside of the city without local infrastructure need more time for residents to travel to reach services. This increases the dependence on cars which is costly to maintain and can affect the affordability of other essential services. One option could be demand-responsive transport to cover the lack of transport services, as well as improving access to digital services, and digital skills. The transport inter-modality could be better aligned to improve the reliability and availability of public transport services. Micro-mobility needs to be improved, for instance by inside parking spaces for bicycles and electric scooters. The question about transport tickets needs to take into account the balance between affordability, quality of services, and financial functionality of the providers.
The workshop was part of the Transport Poverty in Central and Eastern Europe project, led by Focus Slovenia and funded by the European Climate Foundation. The organizers of the workshop were Ana Stojilovska and Sára Szabó from the Institute of Political Science and Lea Kőszeghy from the Institute of Sociology.
