The earliest mention of transport poverty dates to 1973 when transport was associated with social and economic inequality. Later the disadvantages associated with and caused by transport poverty were highlighted. The General Consumer Council of Northern Ireland (GCCNI) considered it as a condition brought on by a combination of restricted choice of transport; government neglect of public transport; high transport costs; and unsatisfactory quality of public transport services.
Meanwhile, the Social Exclusion Unit (SEU) identified five key transport barriers:

1. Availability and accessibility of public and private transport;
2. Personal and public transport cost;
3. The inaccessible locations of services or other desirable locations;
4. Safety and security of transport modes;
5. Travel horizons.

The most recent literature has included social disadvantages such as low income, age, gender, and health condition as new dimensions to be taken into account (Luz and Portugal 2022; Mattioli et al., 2018).

Our research project aims at contributing to better understanding how to define and measure transport poverty in Italy, giving further impetus to informing and promoting evidence-based policies at all levels that deal with and prevent transport poverty. Addressing these issues is urgent as the next months and years will be a test for Europe’s ability to protect the society from emerging vulnerabilities while pursuing increasingly ambitious goals of decarbonisation. Providing equal access to goods, services and jobs is deemed central to transport policy nowadays. Even though it is rarely assessed directly, its presence in the policy debate has been growing. At the same time, the transport sector is essential for the green transition, as it consumes more than half of global liquid fossil fuels, emits about a quarter of the world’s energy-related CO2, generates more than 80 per cent of the air pollution in cities in developing countries and produces chronic traffic congestion in many of the world’s urban areas. With respect to the state of the art, this project aims at providing a comprehensive definition and measurement of transport poverty, addressing its multiple dimensions through the identification and production of a set of indicators defined according to different statistical methodologies and providing estimates at different sub-domains.