Travel-based Social Exclusion of Socioeconomic Vulnerable Group: With the Evidence of Min Le District

The socioeconomically vulnerable group living in urban villages suffers from travel inconvenience and deteriorating environment brought by automobile users. This study aims to examine the travel-based social exclusion in daily living of the socioeconomically disadvantaged. With the evidence of Min Le District of Shenzhen, China, this investigation statistically testifies to a set of evaluation indexes to appraise the level of travel-based social exclusion by combination with variables in transportation, population, economic, social and physical space. Through a questionnaire survey, sampled data of Min Le villagers are collected, which covers information on living facilities, entertainment, travel mode, occupation and the various aspects of the cost of living. Correlation analysis, principal component analysis and cluster analysis are conducted, which leads to the following conclusions: (1) Travel-based social exclusion exists in the mixed residential area, where traditional transport planning routine of “predict and provide” fails to keep balanced travel rights to all social groups. (2) The travel preference variables could be effectively used to reflect and evaluate the transport exclusion. (3) While improvement of external transport facilities would not directly help to eliminate travel-based social exclusion, advanced non-motorized transport system is a more effective approach. (4) Integrating public land ownership and adding public facilities could be effective to decrease travel demands to the socioeconomically vulnerable group.