TY - JOUR
T1 - Unequal futures of rural mobility
T2 - Challenges for a “Smart Countryside”
AU - Bosworth, Gary
AU - Price, Liz
AU - Collison, Martin
AU - Fox, Charles
N1 - Funding information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Midlands Connect funded the original study from which this paper is developed.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Current transport strategy in the UK is strongly urban-focused, with assumptions that technological advances in mobility will simply trickle down into rural areas. This article challenges such a view and instead draws on rural development thinking aligned to a “Smart Countryside” which emphasises the need for place-based approaches. Survey and interview methods are employed to develop a framework of rural needs associated with older people, younger people and businesses. This framework is employed to assess a range of mobility innovations that could most effectively address these needs in different rural contexts. In presenting visions of future rural mobility, the article also identifies key infrastructure as well as institutional and financial changes that are required to facilitate the roll-out of new technologies across rural areas.
AB - Current transport strategy in the UK is strongly urban-focused, with assumptions that technological advances in mobility will simply trickle down into rural areas. This article challenges such a view and instead draws on rural development thinking aligned to a “Smart Countryside” which emphasises the need for place-based approaches. Survey and interview methods are employed to develop a framework of rural needs associated with older people, younger people and businesses. This framework is employed to assess a range of mobility innovations that could most effectively address these needs in different rural contexts. In presenting visions of future rural mobility, the article also identifies key infrastructure as well as institutional and financial changes that are required to facilitate the roll-out of new technologies across rural areas.
KW - mobility
KW - rural development
KW - rural digital connectivity
KW - rural innovation
KW - rural transport
KW - urban–rural inequality
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85094946291
U2 - 10.1177/0269094220968231
DO - 10.1177/0269094220968231
M3 - Article
SN - 0269-0942
VL - 35
SP - 586
EP - 608
JO - Local Economy: The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit
JF - Local Economy: The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit
IS - 6
ER -