Out and about or trapped at home? Transport-related accessibility in rural Europe

In rural areas, services and facilities are widely scattered; people have to travel considerable distances to carry out daily activities and accessibility is closely linked to transport mobility. Inadequate or unaffordable mobility opportunities or the complete lack thereof limit the access to goods, services and social life and thus contribute to social exclusion. Particularly women and elderly people living in rural areas are vulnerable to be faced with unsatisfactory accessibility; this can have a significant impact on their quality of life. These studies explore mobility options and related accessibility issues important to women in rural Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and to elderly people in the district of Holzminden, Germany, to gain an understanding of potential obstacles in accessing activities of importance for them. The district of Holzminden is already heavily affected by demographic ageing and dwindling. It can therefore serve as a model region for approaching accessibility problems associated with demographic change: due to lower and changing demands, the maintenance of certain public and private services and facilities is becoming financially unviable. The ensuing decline in the provision of basic services in the countryside disadvantages elderly people in particular because they have less access to private means of transport and are more affected by health-related mobility restrictions.