A sustainable journey to school: global issues, local places, children's lives

This research is located in the fields of the geographies of childhood, social and environmental policy and urban transport studies. It adds to geographical thinking about children’s choices in their everyday mobilities. My thesis makes an original contribution by filling in large gaps in knowledge about the journey to school experiences of the children, commenting on household circumstances, public space policy, social exclusion and children’s participation in decision making (Hillman, 2006; Jarvis, 2005; McDonald, 2008; Pain, 2006). Children’s choices in their everyday lives are found to be influenced by a complex mix of factors including gender, age, household structure, residential location, health, social culture, urban design and school culture. The research is timely in light of current high profile public and political debates about childhood health, access to public space, social exclusion, sustainable transport policy and children’s rights (Barker, 2003; CABE, 2008; Lolichen, 2007; SEU, 2003; Unicef, 2007). Despite heightened interest in these issues, little is known about the individual experiences of children’s journeys to school at a fine-grained level. My thesis therefore brings together a number of isolated debates and investigates the opportunities and constraints shaping children’s everyday choices; provides policy-relevant insights into the ways in which they reconcile their everyday mobility behaviour within overlapping spheres of impact; provides a theoretical framework within which to understand the sustainable mobility choices available to children in contemporary British society with relation to their journeys to school; and highlights how children view sustainable policy and practices and the relevance and application to their individual circumstances. The research employed a participatory action research approach whereby the children and young people themselves helped specify the range of qualitative methods (interviews, discussion groups, photography, videos, art, drama, statistics and poetry). This dynamic process revealed the fluid and ambiguous nature of children’s journeys to school. It showed that high levels of understanding exist amongst children and young people concerning health and environmental issues associated with the journey to school, yet circumstances located within the key spaces that children occupy (the home, public space and school) limit individual choice, leading to less healthy behavioural patterns of unsustainable travel. Despite ongoing strategies employed at national and local levels to encourage sustainable travel, modal shift has proved negligible. Possible reasons advanced in this thesis are a lack of understanding on behalf of policy makers of the complexities inherent within the spheres of influence that impact on children’s decision making capabilities, policies and strategies proving to be ambiguous or ineffectively communicated and unsuitable for localised situations and the lack of active, meaningful child participation within the decision-making processes. This research therefore provides a critique of some of the more positive assumptions underpinning current concepts regarding children’s participation within policy debate and argues for more micro- research on individual children’s lives. This research highlights the importance of the social aspects of sustainable policy. This relatively neglected dimension of sustainable environmental policy suggests the possibility of an alternate model of sustainable travel with respect to the journey to school, which accounts for the web of interconnecting influencing structures involved in the formation of children’s everyday lives, and which also considers the importance of children’s agency. Providing a physical structure for sustainable travel is insufficient and a progressive, holistic model encompassing the social and cultural dimensions of sustainability is required. Interventions at the school level to encourage more sustainable journeys to school need to be matched by changes in the social and cultural contexts found within the home in particular, as well as within public space, so benefits can be enhanced and healthier choices, with regards to everyday travel behaviour, can be made

The use of choice modelling in assessing tourists destinations : a case study of Redang Marine Park (RMP) Malaysia

PhD ThesisThis study employs the Choice Modelling (CM) Technique, in particular the Contingent Ranking (CR) method, to measure the economic value of the Redang Marine Park (RMP) system in Malaysia. The reason for using CR is to understand which islands in the RMP system the tourists prefer. Knowing the islands’ ranking is crucial for the planning and development of this particular island as a tourism product and destination, and at the same time, for maintaining the islands’ ecosystem as a protected area. The study is divided into three major components. The first investigates destination choices amongst tourists. In this component, the attributes of interest include choices of island, types of accommodation available at the destination, facilities provided at the place of accommodation, distance of accommodation sites to the beach, and types of transportation used to reach the destination. These attributes are measured using the 3-day/2-night (3D2N) package prices offered as holiday packages to tourists. The second component measures the importance of environmental attributes, namely the status of available fish and coral species, the numbers of nesting turtles and the degree of congestion that the tourists experience while participating in water activities such as snorkelling and diving. These attributes are measured through the conservation fees collected by the park authority from tourists visiting RMP. The final part of this study is concerned with the members of local community on the island. Their perceptions towards tourism, their readiness to participate in tourism activities and their attitudes towards MP development are issues explored in this study. A total of 189 local tourists and 94 foreign tourists were interviewed in this CR study, while 200 local residents were interviewed in the community study. This study finds that, in terms of the choice of destination, different islands do matter and are statistically significant for both local and foreign tourists. In terms of overall ranking, both local and foreign tourists rank Kapas as their first choice, while Tenggol ranks last. The main attributes in the destination choice are statistically significant for local and foreign tourists, except for facilities provided at the sites of accommodation. WTP for almost all attributes concerned are higher for local tourists than for foreign ones, except for the reduction in distance between the accommodation sites and the beach. Specifically, the improvement in terms of types of accommodation ranges from RM113.33 to RM205.50 for local tourists and RM136.50 to RM169.71 for foreign tourists. WTP for improved travel time from the mainland to the island ranges from RM0.43 to RM1.75 for the domestic tourists, as opposed to the values given by foreign tourists, ranging from RM0.29 to RM1.50. WTP for the option of accommodation situated closer to beach areas ranges from RM3.14 to RM11.25 for local tourists. These values are lower than WTP given by foreign tourists, which range from RM10.55 to RM15.57. Further analyses on marginal WTP are also discussed. Regarding environmental issues, this study finds that all attributes are statistically significant for both local and foreign tourists. The local tourists’ WTP for changes in the number of fish and coral species ranges between RM4.31 to RM6.70, while foreign tourists’ WTP ranges between RM3.50 to RM6.73. As for the number of nesting turtles, locals are willing to pay between RM3.78 and RM4.76 while foreign tourists are willing to pay between RM2.28 and RM4.14 for different attribute levels. Finally to avoid congestion while participating in the water activities, WTP by locals ranges between RM2.80 to RM13.37, and WTP amongst ii foreign tourists ranges from RM1.99 to RM11.37. Similar to the destination choice, further analyses on marginal WTP are also discussed. Regarding the local community, this study deduces that community members perceive the tourism industry positively and are willing to participate in tourism-related activities. However, they have some reservations surrounding the presence of tourists in their village, based on social and religious grounds. Their attitudes toward the development of the MP are also positive. Finally this study highlights the economic potentials that players in the tourism industry may tap and capitalize upon, mainly through practising pricing mechanisms in selling and promoting holiday packages in RMP. To the park managers and local authorities, this study may suggest some guidelines for future development processes. Such processes should consider selective development as an option while safeguarding the natural beauty of RMP. The possibility of revising the current conservation fee to resemble tourists’ WTP is also highlighted in this study. Finally, the study recommends the implementation of price discrimination and peak-load pricing in charging and collecting conservation fees as methods, not only for the purposes of increasing revenue but also for acting as tools to monitor and control the number of tourists to RMP.Government of Malaysia: The Universiti Utara Malaysia

The economic appraisal of transport projects : the incorporation of disabled access

The importance for disabled people of accessible transport is now widely recognised, as is the reality that this also benefits many non-disabled people. Many previous commentaries offer a qualitative perspective, but quantitative evidence, particularly of benefits to the population as a whole, has been lacking. This research, underpinned by the Social Model of disability, established that the absence of such evidence creates a barrier to the inclusion of disabled people in mainstream transport. Further, it demonstrates that there is a way to remove this barrier: by applying stated preference techniques, the benefits of providing access to transport systems can be robustly monetised and successfully incorporated into the economic appraisal of transport projects. A multiple-case study of tram systems investigated how practitioners currently incorporate disabled access into project appraisals. Analysis showed that isomorphic forces identified by new institutional theory have led to similarity in practice, with the effect that ways of incorporating the costs of disabled access are well established, but ways of incorporating the benefits remain unclear. Resulting benefit:cost ratios, often apparently unfavourable, may be misleading. A systematic literature review catalogued methods for valuing non-market goods, and from these identified methods transferable to disabled access. Stated preference, a method of monetisation common in the transport environment, emerged as an appropriate method, with discrete choice modelling a suitable technique. A discrete choice experiment enabled calculation of monetary values for platform-to-platform access at stations. Using a cross-section of the population and addressing socioeconomic factors such as age, disability, and attitudes to disabled people, willingness-to-pay figures were derived for access methods suited to disabled people‘s needs. Finally, these willingness-to-pay figures were incorporated into two appraisals. The amended benefit:cost ratios more accurately represent the value of access provision, and the figures incidentally enable the relative values of different access options to be distinguished.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo