Take a hike: Spatializing allemannsretten and transportation accessibility for outdoor recreation in the Greater Stavanger Region, Norway
Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift, published online 15.10.2024, 14 p. DOI: 10.1080/00291951.2024.2412862
Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift, published online 15.10.2024, 14 p. DOI: 10.1080/00291951.2024.2412862
A special connection between people and their environment is legally recognized in Norway as Allemannsretten, the right to enjoy a large part of Norwegian nature. Scholarship on leisuremobility, spatial planning, and transport geography recognizes the intrinsic value of this spatialconnection. As people travel for outdoor recreation, equitable access to recreation is a goal forjust transport systems and must be achieved as these systems are digitalized and electrified forlow-carbon transitions. The aim of the article is to identify the impact of transportationaccessibility on outdoor recreation habits in the Greater Stavanger Region, Norway’s third-largest metropolitan region. With car-centric development since the 1970s and ambitiousautomobility-reduction targets, transportation accessibility for outdoor recreation is a keyindicator of challenges to overcome in mobility transitions, yet features marginally in publicdebate. In focusing on popular outdoor day trips and based on multisited interviews with bothcar owners and non-owners, the authors identify oversights in accessibility, spatializing the issueof local destinations in relation to urban transport transition. They conclude that policymakersmust address specific gaps to make transport systems desirable and inclusive, and that a spatiallens can be used to problematize and advance just low-carbon transitions.