Doctoral Dissertation

Explorations of Transport-Related Social Exclusion from thePerspectives of Transport Disadvantaged Groups and Other Stakeholders:Case Studies of Rural and Disadvantaged Regions in Nepal and JapanSUMMARY

FUYO YAMAMOTO

Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation
Hiroshima University

September 2022

Abstract
For many decades, geographers, sociologists and transport researchers have drawn attention
to the unique challenges faced by people living in rural areas due to limited transport options
and difficulties in accessing critical activities, services and social networks. Despite theirdiversity, rural areas share some common characteristics which affect the transportation
systems operating there, such as 1) low densities of population; 2) fewer income-earning
opportunities; 3) fewer social, economic and government services; 4) longer distances
between houses and facilities; and 5) longer distances between houses and transport
gateways, such as bus stops. In addition, some rural areas are characterised by difficult
terrain, which makes it difficult to construct roads and railways, or challenging andexpensive to operate motorized transport.
Given these challenges, some researchers have used the concept of transport-related socialexclusion, or TRSE, to frame the relationships between the mobilities of rural residents andthe social and economic outcomes they aspire to. This concept asserts that limited access totransportation resources hinders people’s access to the various activities, services anddestinations they need to get to in order to live. The TRSE literature describes a variety offactors of exclusion, some which have been featured in past accessibility studies, such asdistance, travel costs, physical characteristics of vehicles, travel time, and timing of public
transport services, as well as new dimensions such as safety, personal security, socio-cultural
norms, and other subjective factors which influence people’s capacity to travel.
To date, however, most TRSE studies have been conducted in Europe, Australia and North
America, with fewer examples from non-Western countries such as Japan, or from lowincome countries such as Nepal. Furthermore, most studies focus only on the transport
disadvantaged individuals, without considering the relationship between these people andthe non-transport disadvantaged stakeholders around them, such as family and neighbours.
To address these gaps, the current research set out to answer the following questions: 1)
how can existing conceptual frameworks proposed in the TRSE literature be adapted toreflect a more diverse range of country contexts; 2) how do other stakeholders influence theaccess of transport disadvantaged individual/groups to critical activities and services; and 3)
what kind of constraints prevent other stakeholders from getting involved in helping to
improve access of the transport disadvantaged? To do this, it first seeks to clarify thedifferent approaches currently used to analyse rural transport systems and mobilities. It thenproposes a conceptual framework for assessing the TRSE of selected groups. The main
components of the framework are: 1) the political context, 2) the accessibility context, 3)
TRSE factors, 4) individual/subgroup attributes, and 5) the influence of other stakeholders.
The first step of an assessment is to describe 1) the political context, namely which groups
are of policy concern; what kind of activities are prioritised; and what levels of access aredesirable and politically expected. The assessment then looks at 2) the accessibility context,
namely the location of origins and destinations of travel; infrastructure; and available modes
and transport services. Taking these into account, it then looks at the ways in which thegroups in question experience the accessibility context by considering 3) how various TRSE

factors affect these experiences; 4) the influences of specific attributes at the individual orsubgroup level; and 5) the influences of other stakeholders.
After describing the research contexts of rural areas in Nepal and Japan in Chapter 3, thecurrent thesis presents the results of four case studies about TRSE using this framework as
an organising principle. Chapter 4, Intra-household time-use and children’s participationin educational activities in rural Nepal, initially set out to investigate the TRSE factors
affecting children’s travel to school and how these affected their enrolment and attendancein rural Nepal. However, the survey found that the vast majority were attending regularly,
so the focus of the study shifted to how children’s time-use, such as helping with householdchores, affected the time they spent on educational activities. A multilevel GSEM model
was used to test these relationships. The same model was extended to incorporate the effects
of a parent’s time-use on children’s time-use and confirmed that most of the time-uses weresignificant.
Chapter 5, Interpersonal and socio-cultural norms affecting elderly people’s mobilities in
Nijo District, Japan, explored the mobilities of elderly people in Nijo, a small rural districtin Shimane Prefecture, Japan. In particular, it investigated how they perceive their travel
options, such as how they feel about arranging travel; how they feel about asking otherpeople for lifts; and who they would call for transport in an emergency. In-depth semistructured interviews with 17 elderly people were conducted. Provisional coding and values
coding were used to analyse the interviews, using selected TRSE factors as identified in theTRSE literature as the basis for coding. Through this analysis, the study identified subjective
attitudes affecting people’s mobility, and proposes that these cultural and social norms canalso be viewed as TRSE factors as they influence the willingness of elderly people to ask forlifts, and the willingness of other people to give lifts to elderly people.
Chapter 6, The potential for Village Hubs to address TRSE: case study of Nijo District,Shimane Prefecture, continued the investigation of TRSE issues in Nijo District, but thistime from the perspective of its traditional Village Hub. Like “compact city” initiatives, theJapanese Government’s Village Hubs initiative promotes the concentration of critical
economic and social facilities within a limited geographic area in order to consolidate
transport links and facilitate access to them. Based on a small household survey, the study
looked at current shopping practices of residents and their views on transport services aroundthe traditional hub area of Nijo District. Despite the presence of several shops in this hub
and twice-weekly intra-district bus services, the study found that the majority of residents
were travelling to Masuda City, some 20 km away, for their shopping. Though important tothose who were shopping in the traditional hub, their numbers were so few as to make it
difficult to sustain the shops. The study suggested that proximity alone may not facilitate
access, and also that people’s shopping and transport behaviours need to be assessed together.

Chapter 7, The potential for transport operators to address TRSE: case study of new services
offered by Japanese taxi companies during the COVID-19 pandemic, presents the result ofa study of new types of taxi services started in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in
Japan. Through a survey of taxi companies in the Chugoku region of Japan (Hiroshima,Okayama, Shimane, Tottori, and Yamaguchi), managers of companies which had offered
new services were identified and interviewed. The interviews were coded using the key
components of the Business Model Canvas (BMC). Through this process, it emerged that
one of the main motivations for taxi companies to provide these services was to support
elderly customers who they thought were facing difficulties in going shopping during theCovid-19 pandemic. To date, there have been very few studies which involve the views oftransport operators on their role in addressing TRSE, but the current study highlighted how
the exclusion of elderly people from shopping during the pandemic led private operators totry to respond. The interviews revealed that the new services were not popular nor profitable,
but the managers still found value in the experience of trying something new.
Drawing from the four case studies, the thesis concludes with a general discussion of thecross-cutting research questions set out above. It discusses how the proposed TRSE
framework needed to be adapted to reflect additional components, such as benchmarks
regarding access to opportunities and governance structures. It also draws attention to theinfluence of other stakeholders in hindering or enabling the access of the transport
disadvantaged groups. Regarding policy implications, the case studies suggest that byexpanding the range of policy concerns beyond transport, mobility and accessibility issues,
the concept of transport-related social exclusion requires more cooperation from different
stakeholders. This makes policy responses more complicated but also broadens the policy
options that governments can draw upon. One of the limitations of the current thesis was
the lack of consideration of appropriate methodologies for analysing TRSE. AlthoughChapter 5 demonstrated how the TRSE factors could be used as a coding framework for
qualitative analyses, further work is needed to improve methodologies to do the TRSE
assessments. In addition, further empirical applications of the proposed TRSE assessment
framework are required confirm its usefulness as a research and policy assessment
framework. The conclusions end by highlighting some of the limitations of the research andsuggesting areas for further research.