Public transport (PT) is pivotal for sustainable development, ensuring accessibility in urban and rural areas while reducing CO₂ emissions and contributing to sustainable cities (SDG 11). Its functioning, and the functioning of our societies more broadly, relies on the everyday work of PT workers. Despite this central role, PT work across Europe, including the Nordic region, faces a crisis pertaining to working conditions and labour supply. 

In Sweden, trade unions and workers report poor working conditions, citing long and stressful working days and inadequate time and spaces for resting. At the same time, PT operators face acute staff shortages (primarily drivers, but also mechanics, traffic controllers, and technicians), leading to frequent service disruptions. Operators estimate a need for 8,100 new bus drivers before 2026 to guarantee adequate service levels. A comparable scenario can be observed in other Nordic countries, such as Denmark and Norway. 

This shortage is expected to worsen due to a forthcoming wave of retirements, driven by the high average age of bus drivers: in 2023, 62% of tram and bus drivers in Sweden were over 50, and only 3% under 30. Despite efforts to attract women, the sector remains highly male-dominated (88% of drivers in 2023), and women’s participation declined by 10% between 2016 and 2023. Research highlights barriers for women, including atypical hours and lack of safe transport options. Recruitment and retention of women and younger drivers remain major concerns. 

Understanding bus drivers’ working conditions – and how these intersect with gender, age, and other inequalities shaping experiences and coping strategies – is a priority for transport and mobility research. This knowledge is essential for enhancing workers’ well-being, making the profession more attractive, and ensuring the sustainability of PT.

This article explores the potential for just knowledge production in Urban Living Labs (ULLs) by foregrounding epistemic justice. Drawing on autoethnographic and ethnographic methods, it examines how testimonial and hermeneutical injustices shape the formation, implementation, and dissemination phases of EU-funded, research-led ULLs. Findings show that funding structures, academic framings, and dissemination formats constrain the inclusion and recognition of diverse voices, particularly those of citizens. Despite researchers’ efforts to manage power asymmetries, broader societal hierarchies and institutional path dependencies are often reproduced. The study identifies three interrelated strategies researchers use to navigate these challenges: they manage path dependencies, negotiate expectations, and curate knowledge production. These reflect the ethical dilemmas researchers face when balancing co-creation ideals with institutional demands. Conceptualizing ULLs as deliberative spaces highlights their vulnerability to epistemic injustice and illustrate how questions of mandate, power, and responsibility remain under-theorized, calling for a more reflexive and structured approach to ethical practice in ULLs. By foregrounding epistemic justice, this study contributes to critical debates on knowledge production in the new experimental governance spaces that are currently developing in the intersection between planning and innovation contexts, and offers insights for both research and for EU programmes aiming to foster inclusive urban transitions.

Automated vehicles (AVs) could reshape transport systems, but their impacts depend heavily on the contexts in which they are deployed. This chapter examines how academic AV research engages with contextual diversity, defined here as the geographic, cultural, and policy factors that shape deployment outcomes. Based on a systematic review of 26 impactful peer-reviewed articles, we analyze the empirical presence and analytic function of these context factors. Results show that while geography and policy are frequently addressed, they are often treated as background rather than as active analytic lenses. Culture is significantly underrepresented and rarely measured or theorized. Few studies consider multiple context factors, and none examine how geography, culture, and policy interact. This selective engagement reflects a field still focused on technical feasibility and individual-level behavior, with broader socio-contextual concerns lagging behind. We argue that deeper, more integrated treatment of context is essential - not as an abstract ideal, but to assess the alignment between AV service models, population characteristics, and the environments into which they are introduced. Without this alignment, deployments risk failing to meet societal needs or local conditions. The chapter concludes with a call for context-aware design approaches that treat context not as a secondary concern but as central to the development of equitable and effective AV systems.  

This study engages a sufficientarian perspective to examine the role current basic levels of public transport provision play in delivering sufficient accessibility for inhabitants of sparsely populated areas. A survey was conducted among people living in areas which meet the criteria set out for basic levels of public transport provision for the Västra Götaland Region, Sweden. Mixed methods were employed in the collection and analysis of the survey data. The links between socio-economic, socio-demographic, time constraints, and accessibility and transport-related characteristics on the one hand and suppressed travel combined with activity participation levels on the other were examined. Our findings indicate that the current provision levels play a limited role in delivering (sufficient) accessibility, with many reports of personal adaptive strategies and forgone trips. We found that young people were significantly more likely to report suppressed travel. We propose recommendations for the improvement of public transport-based accessibility in such contexts.

Trots att kollektivtrafiksektorn är en nyckel för hållbar utveckling och möjliggör resande för olika grupper finns stora utmaningar vad gäller arbetsvillkor och tillgång till arbetskraft. Facket varnar för sämre arbetsvillkor med ökad stress och tidsbrist medan arbetsgivarna vittnar om brist på arbetskraft. Detta påverkar möjligheten till god livskvalitet och välmående för bussförare men också för resenärer. Att förbättra arbetsvillkoren inom kollektivtrafiken kräver en bättre förståelse för bussförares upplevelser av arbetet och hur dessa knyter an till ojämlikhet, teknisk utveckling och möjligheter till god styrning. Inom ramen för den Forte-finansierade projektet BUSSA genomförde vi en enkätundersökning, vars resultat kommer att presenteras i detta bidrag.

Arbetsvillkoren för bussförare har på senare tid fått ökad uppmärksamhet i den offentliga debatten, i såväl Sverige som i Europa. Kritiken rör bland annat hög tidspress, brist på återhämtning, oregelbundna arbetstider, obalans mellan arbete och privatliv samt låga löner och otillräcklig ersättning för obekväm arbetstid. Samtidigt är forskningen om bussförares arbetsvillkor förhållandevis sparsam. Den här rapporten bygger på ett forskningsprojekt som handlar om hur det är att arbeta som bussförare i Skånetrafikens regi. Fokus ligger på att ge en fördjupad bild av rådande arbetsförhållanden och hur dessa påverkar förarnas yrkesvardag såväl som livet i stort. Till detta kommer också en diskussion om hur nuvarande situation och förarnas mående skulle kunna förbättras i olika avseenden. Projektet har därför utgått från en kvalitativ forskningsansats med bland annat intervjuer, som lämpar sig för att fånga olika personers olika erfarenheter, upplevelser och reflektioner.

Public transport (PT) and its timetables have considerable effects on the everyday life of passengers and transport workers. However, social science research on the processes, values, and goals behind the creation of PT timetables is limited. The process of timetabling has mainly been studied within transport engineering from a technical and optimization perspective. This exploratory study aims to gain an understanding of the timetabling process from a sociological perspective to identify themes for further inquiry. In addition, it aims to reflect on the possible socio-spatial effects of timetable practices, based on the goals and values expressed by professionals at PT authorities. The study focuses on timetable planning for buses in three Swedish regional PT authorities (RPTAs). The analysis is based on semi-structured interviews with seven officials at three RPTAs, supported by a semi-systematic literature overview.

The results indicate that bus timetables are created through a complex decision-making process that starts with political goals. This process involves extensive coordination among regional RPTAs, municipalities, and PT operators, with limited input from employers and citizens. The knowledge base includes travel data and municipal plans, with constraints such as budget, infrastructure, and road network issues. The study suggests that the main goal of timetable planning is to increase PT usage by focusing on high-volume routes, following a “best benefit for most people” principle.

Three key sociological and temporal issues arise: the utilitarian approach of benefiting the majority, the prioritization of speed, and the possibility to adapt to timetables. The focus on trunk routes can lead to high-quality PT for many but insufficient service for others. Speed prioritization can exclude those who cannot adapt to it, such as people with disabilities. The question of who should adapt to whose schedules remains critical, as the possibility to control one own’s time is unequally distributed. 

Kollektivtrafiken och dess tidtabeller påverkar resenärer och transportarbetare i deras vardag. Trots det är den samhällsvetenskapliga forskningen om processerna, värderingarna och målen bakom tidtabellsplanering begränsad. Tidtabellsprocessen har främst studerats ur ett tekniskt perspektiv med fokus på optimering. Denna explorativa studie syftar till att skapa en första förståelse för tidtabellsprocessen ur ett sociologiskt perspektiv för att identifiera relevanta teman för fortsatt forskning. Ett annat syfte är att reflektera över möjliga socio-spatiala effekter av tidtabellsplaneringen, baserat på de mål och värderingar som uttrycks av planerare. Studien fokuserar på tidtabellsplanering för bussar i treregionala kollektivtrafikmyndigheter (RKM). Analysen bygger på semistrukturerade intervjuer med sju tjänstemän vid tre RKM, samt en semi-systematisk litteraturöversikt.

Resultaten visar att busstidtabeller skapas genom en komplex beslutsprocess som börjar med politiska mål och strategiska dokument. Denna process involverar omfattande samordning mellan regionala RKM, kommuner och operatörer, med begränsad involvering av arbetsgivare och medborgare. Kunskapsbasen inkluderar resedata och kommunala planer. Frågor som berör budget, infrastruktur och framkomlighet skapar begränsningar. Studien pekar på att ett övergripande mål med tidtabellsplanering är att öka antalet resenärer genom att fokusera på linjer med höga volymer av resande, enligt principen ”bäst nytta för flest”.

Studien pekar på tre centrala sociologiska frågor: den utilitaristiska ansatsen att gynna majoriteten, prioriteringen av hastighet och frågan om vem som kan anpassa sig till vilka tidtabeller. Fokuset på ”starka stråk” bidrar till kollektivtrafik med hög kvalitet för många men också otillräcklig service för andra. Att prioritera hastighet gör det svårt för exempelvis personer med funktionsnedsättningar att anpassa sig till tidtabellen. Frågan om vem som ska anpassa sig till vems tidtabeller förblir kritisk, eftersom möjligheten att styra över den egna tiden är ojämnt fördelad.  

While transport and mobility studies have focused on diverse challenges related to improving the quality of public transport (PT) for its passengers, they have hardly examined the well-being and livelihoods of PT workers. To address this gap, we explore the work spaces and times of bus drivers employed in PT in Gothenburg and Stockholm (Sweden), where PT operations are procured from private companies to ensure service quality and financial efficiency. Drawing upon studies on capitalist temporalities of work, we observe that the bus drivers are obliged to perform fatiguing work tasks under constant time pressure, which generates daily conflicts between bodily, personal, and work rhythms.

The drivers’ time wealth is severely constrained, as they have limited capacity to control their own time and experience a near-constant work-life imbalance. Our findings indicate that such hindrances are not simply a product of work rhythms marked by the rigidity of the PT timetable. Rather, they emerge from the operational and financial logic of procurement that contradicts the well-being and livelihoods of PT workers. We conclude with a plea to place workers as essential actors for future reflections on inequalities and injustices related to transport and mobility.

This paper contributes to the understanding of spatiotemporal accessibility inequalities by exploring how the current public transport (PT) provision affects the time wealth of PT users living in two peripheral neighbourhoods in Malmo. The paper investigates time-related resources and constraints that concur in defining accessibility inequalities, identifies forms of temporal disadvantage and privilege and addresses the relevance of recognizing and meeting the multiple time-related needs of (potential) PT users. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, the study integrates results from a thematic analysis of interviews and from a GIS spatiotemporal accessibility analysis of PT schedules to understand whether and how the current PT provision (a) allows users to carry out the desired or needed activities by PT in the time available to them, (b) is harmonized with their spatiotemporal access needs and (c) supports or hinders the users' ability to control their travel time. The paper suggests that, in the observed cases, the PT provision provides unequal opportunities for faster connections and information, exposing some users to time-related transport disadvantage. Also, the current PT provision does not always seem to be harmonized with the participants' access needs, especially during off-peak hours. The findings highlight the importance of taking into consideration the time wealth of (potential) PT users with different access needs, resources, and constraints, with the aim to both tackle transport disadvantage and support the adoption of sustainable modal choices. The study provides directions for further spatiotemporal accessibility research and for urban time and mobility policies.