13. How can transport interventions help break down barriers to opportunity for those in deprivation and other disadvantaged groups?
Background
DfT’s ARI identifies 40 broad research questions that reflect areas of strategic importance to the department, where further insight and collaboration could enhance our evidence base, challenge assumptions and strengthen future decision-making. The ARI is organised around four complementary themes, and this question sits within the Improving Journeys for People theme.
Transport plays a central role in people’s everyday lives, shaping how easily, affordably and reliably they can access work, education, public services and social opportunities. Improving journeys for people means putting users at the heart of the transport system, ensuring that journeys are safe, dependable, accessible, affordable and integrated across modes. This reflects the vision set out in Better Connected, which emphasises transport that supports everyday journeys across the country.
For the purposes of these ARIs, improving journeys for people focuses on end to end travel experiences rather than individual services in isolation. Evidence suggests what matters most to users of the transport system is how journeys function as a whole, including the availability and quality of information, perceptions of reliability and safety, affordability and simplicity, and confidence to travel.
People’s journeys are shaped by factors beyond transport infrastructure alone, including housing, land use, employment, digital connectivity and public services. Understanding how these factors interact with transport provision is essential to improving real world journeys, particularly for groups who face greater barriers to travel or are more sensitive to cost, reliability and complexity.
This theme recognises that improving journeys for people requires both day to day operational improvements and longer term system change. The ARIs therefore seek research that deepens understanding of how transport systems shape people’s experiences and behaviour, and that supports more integrated, people centred decision making across different contexts.
Next steps
If you have research relevant to this topic, are planning work in this area, or would like to discuss potential collaboration, please get in touch. For our monitoring and evaluation purposes, we are also keen to hear if the ARI has informed or influenced your research.
To get in touch and report the use, please fill in the form https://submit.forms.service.gov.uk/form/264718/dft-areas-of-research-interest-ari/
Link to DfT ARI: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dft-areas-of-research-interest/areas-of-research-interest-2026
Topics
Related UKRI funded projects
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The Role of Demand Responsive Transport in Connecting People to Opportunities in Less Densely Populated Areas
The Government's National Bus Strategy 'Bus Back Better' seeks to arrest the decline in bus provision and use. It sees an important role for Demand Responsive Transport (or DRT) in lower-density areas not served well by ...
Funded by: ESRC
Lead research organisation: University of the West of England
Why might this be relevant?
The project specifically focuses on assessing the impact of transport interventions on unlocking opportunities for those in deprivation, aligning with the question.
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Social Impacts and Social Equity Issues in Transport Workshop Series
Social issues are important in the contemporary transport challenges facing in our cities, towns and rural areas today. However, they have been much less studied by transport researchers than other aspects of transport p...
Funded by: ESRC
Lead research organisation: University of Oxford
Why might this be relevant?
The project addresses social impacts and equity issues in transport, which is related to the question but does not fully answer it.
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Transport and Mobilities: Meeting the Needs of Vulnerable Population in Developing Cities
The proposed network offers a novel and ambitious rethinking of global transport challenges of developing cities from the perspectives of vulnerable citizens, whose needs at the street-level are often overlooked. The p...
Funded by: ESRC
Lead research organisation: University of Leeds
Why might this be relevant?
The project focuses on meeting the needs of vulnerable populations in developing cities, which is related to the question but does not fully answer it.