ABSTRACT
The production of societies and economies that embody principles of both social and environmental justice is an almost un-contestable aspiration, but agreement on how such goals might be met is often illusory. Achieving both social and environmental justice in transport and mobility seems particularly difficult as, in some respects at least, the two concepts conflict with each other. Thus while much of the literature on social exclusion in transport focuses on the need to improve access for all to the dominant transport modes, issues of environmental justice might argue for restrictions on personal mobility to reduce vehicle emissions. Clearly, any restrictions that operate through a price mechanism run the risk of increasing rather than decreasing mobility-related social exclusion and thus of contravening principles of social justice (Hine 2003, 2012; Lucas 2006, 2012; Preston and Raje 2007; Preston 2009). This chapter, first, explores the concepts of mobility-related environmental and social justice in more detail, focusing especially on the ways in which these concepts may be applied to short trips in urban areas over approximately the last century, and, second, develops an argument that at various points in the twentieth century there were opportunities to produce a transport infrastructure that delivered more socially and environmentally just patterns of everyday mobility, but that such opportunities were lost as subsequent decisions reinforced existing mobility inequalities. This chapter focuses on two specific forms of urban transport: trams and bicycles. In each case it examines the paradoxes that concepts of social and environmental justice present, assesses the historical context in which each has developed, and argues that alternative paths that would have delivered greater social and environmental justice were possible. In conclusion, the chapter outlines a policy framework that might avoid such opportunities being missed in the future, thus ensuring that present-day planning learns from past experience.
