The Scales of Vulnerability. Mobility and Accessibility of the Vulnerable Active Population in Santiago de Chile
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Date
2025
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Publisher
Springer Nature Switzerland
Abstract
Social exclusion associated with urban mobility is a multi-scalar phenomenon. On the one hand, the possibility of accessing essential activities such as work depends on the availability of job opportunities (at the metropolitan level) as well as the availability of modal alternatives (at the neighborhood-community level); on the other hand, socioeconomic vulnerability can determine specific requirements for modes of transport—public/private, which may be less accessible in vulnerable neighborhoods. Considering these elements, the work proposes to determine the conditions of accessibility (urban and neighborhood) for workers to the public transport system in the Metropolitan Area of Santiago (MAS), focusing on 40% most vulnerable households. The analysis considers urban-scale accessibility, considering average travel times in public transport, and accessibility to public transport at the neighborhood scale, considering access points, frequencies and relative times. The results show that workers from more vulnerable households have long travel times (30.1% travel more than 60 min to the city’s business center) and often live in areas with very low or low accessibility to public transport (53%). The results show that it is necessary to consider different scales to address the problem of accessibility, which affects the vulnerable active population of the city, considering that the relationship between accessibility and vulnerability allows to highlight priority areas for intervention from the public transport system and the opportunities available at the local level.