Multimodal divide: Reproduction of transport poverty in smart mobility trends

This paper makes a critical contribution to the discussion about the transition from an automobile society to a multimodal society in Western transport and mobility research, which is characterised by a flexible use of different transport options. This discussion is fuelled, in particular, by the emergence of smart mobility, in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) – e.g., the smartphone – are used to switch flexibly between new interconnected mobility services (such as carsharing, ridesharing, bikesharing, bus or train). The starting point for the scepticism towards this transition is the research on transport poverty, which problematizes social exclusions from participation in mobility due to the unequal distribution of mode options. This paper suggests a change of perspective from the real mode choice to potential/optional mode choice in order to account for this scepticism in the research on multimodal behaviours. Multioptionality is conceptualised as a necessary precondition for multimodal behaviours to achieve this change of perspective. Based on this conceptualisation, three theses result from a quantitative analysis of a data set from an area in the Rhine-Main region in Germany. The theses challenge the often-postulated potential ubiquity of multimodal behaviours: (i) Transport poverty – represented by a lack of mode options – inhibits the potential production of multimodal behaviours, particularly by socially marginalised people (low income, low education, precarious job situation, etc.). (ii) A multimodal divide describes the reproduction of transport poverty in the guise of modernisation, as the transport poor – with few mode options – also lack certain ICTs that provide central access media to smart mobility. (iii) Another (perfidious) form of social exclusion from participation in smart mobility concerns critical thinkers who avoid installing mobility applications to protect their privacy. This exclusion occurs because these apps do not have an alternative as access software to smart mobility.