ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a flavour of the wealth of theoretical and empirical research that has been undertaken in the area of transport and social exclusion over the last ten years. It emphasises the importance of adopting multi-dimensional and contextualised understandings of the underlying factors which cause transport-related exclusion. The chapter also raises the issue of transport burdens and reduced well-being for non-excluded populations and the relational nature of the problem of transport disadvantage in the context of hyper mobile and car dependent societies. Local transport services are likely to be particularly badly hit, with a 309m in local transport spending being proposed this year alone. Studies of time-space geography present some further challenges for the study of transport-related disadvantage. Social networks are a particularly important area of study for social exclusion, in that they are generally seen to be one of the main ways in which individuals and communities maintain their social capital.
