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Wasting Time? The Differentiation of Travel Time in Urban Transport

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  • Weiqiang Lin

    (Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, England)

Abstract

Recent years have seen increasing academic interest in transport and the concept of travel time. In particular, scholars have tried to open up travel time to alternative modes of understanding, taking it beyond its usual productivist associations with waste and useless idleness. The author, however, seeks to understand travel time in a different way. Rather than filling it up with activities, it is argued that travel time must first be recognized as constituted by, and constitutive of, society and its rhythms. As such, the author seeks to unpack its value in context, by thinking through its productions, structuring, and potential effects. With Singapore's urban transport system taken as a case study, the inequitable ways in which travel time is refracted and experienced by different groups of commuters in this fast-paced city are considered. Specifically, how this time has been hastened for some, rescheduled for others, and rendered especially unpredictable for public transit users through various policies and constraints are put into relations. By attending to the unevenness of these differentiated processes, the author argues that a close contextual reading of transport and its manifold rhythms is indispensable if questions surrounding social equity and sustainability are to be adequately addressed.

Suggested Citation

  • Weiqiang Lin, 2012. "Wasting Time? The Differentiation of Travel Time in Urban Transport," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(10), pages 2477-2492, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:44:y:2012:i:10:p:2477-2492
    DOI: 10.1068/a4525
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Koh, Winston T. H., 2003. "Control of vehicle ownership and market competition: theory and Singapore's experience with the vehicle quota system," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 749-770, November.
    2. Ermisch, J. F. & Huff, W. G., 1999. "Hypergrowth in an East Asian NIC: Public policy and capital accumulation in Singapore," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 21-38, January.
    3. Phang, Sock-Yong, 2003. "Strategic development of airport and rail infrastructure: the case of Singapore," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 27-33, January.
    4. Richard Arnott & Tilmann Rave & Ronnie Schöb, 2005. "Alleviating Urban Traffic Congestion," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262012197, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Cohen, Tom & Shrewsbury, John, 2018. "A novel metric for responding to transport inequality," OSF Preprints 8ypht, Center for Open Science.
    2. Tim Cresswell, 2016. "Afterword – Asian mobilities/Asian frictions?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(6), pages 1082-1086, June.
    3. Patricia Mokhtarian & Francis Papon & Matthieu Goulard & Marco Diana, 2015. "What makes travel pleasant and/or tiring? An investigation based on the French National Travel Survey," Transportation, Springer, vol. 42(6), pages 1103-1128, November.
    4. Doody, Brendan J., 2020. "Becoming ‘a Londoner’: Migrants’ experiences and habits of everyday (im)mobilities over the life course," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    5. Kevin Maréchal, 2018. "Recasting the understanding of habits for behaviour-oriented policies in transportation," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/270475, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    6. Cohen, Tom, 2020. "Tools for addressing transport inequality: A novel variant of accessibility measurement," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    7. Yongcheng Wang & Yiik Diew Wong & Kelvin Goh, 2021. "Perceived importance of inclusive street dimensions: a public questionnaire survey from a vision(ing) perspective," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 699-721, April.
    8. Kevin Marechal, 2018. "Recasting the Understanding of Habits for Behaviour-Oriented Policies in Transportation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-14, March.

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