Session Lead: Lynette Cheah

Transportation is an integral part of society and the economy, providing people with access to jobs and opportunities, moving goods that are needed. Making sure transport options are available to all members of society is an important part of achieving sustainable transport. Achieving inclusive transport will require equity considerations to be incorporated early into transport policy and planning.

Participants in this session will reflect on the concept of transport equity in the cities that they are familiar with. We will then collaborate and consider some possible measures of equity in urban transport, and creative ways to visualize them.

Hello fellow AScUS participants!

We are the organisers of the session “Assessing Urban Transport Equity” happening on Wednesday, 2 June. In this session, we will discuss the issues of transport equity, and think of ways to better measure and visualise transport equity, to achieve an equitable, inclusive and sustainable transportation system.

If this is right up your alley, street or boulevard, please do register for our session here. To help prepare yourself for the session, we encourage you to think about transport equity in your city. Examples and anecdotes that liven the discussion are welcome too! To begin, think about how the costs and benefits of transportation are distributed in your city. Who gets to benefit, and who pays?

A picture speaks a thousand words, so if you are able to, please share a photo of what you think represents transport equity (or the lack of it) in your city. Since almost no one can travel right now, sharing photos and hearing about your experiences in your city would be most welcome!

Finally, here are some suggested materials to get started on transport equity:
- Floridea Di Ciommo & Yoram Shiftan (2017) Transport equity analysis, Transport Reviews, 37:2, 139-151, DOI: 10.1080/01441647.2017.1278647 (open access)
- Litman, T. (2021) Evaluating Transportation Equity - Guidance for Incorporating Distributional Impacts in Transportation Planning. URL: vtpi.org/equity.pdf (open access). We recommend reading at least the Executive Summary (pages 2 to 5).
- If you prefer watching videos instead, learn about how a transport planning tool is helping municipalities improve transport equity: The Future of Cities Starts with Transportation Equity

Here's a photo from Singapore: some pedestrian crossings have a feature for seniors to request additional time for the green light, in order to complete the crossing safely. They need to tap their senior transit card for this.

The external links to the suggested materials are broken. Here are the correct links:

We recommend reading at least the Executive Summary (pages 2 to 5) of Evaluating Transportation Equity - Guidance for Incorporating Distributional Impacts in Transportation Planning by Todd Litman.

We also recommend this video about how a transport planning tool is helping municipalities improve transport equity: The Future of Cities Starts with Transportation Equity.

You may stop here, but if you would like to read more, we also recommend the article by Floridea Di Ciommo and Yoram Shiftan (DOI: 10.1080/01441647.2017.1278647).

Here's a photo from my city, Singapore. It is a screengrab from a short documentary (timestamp 04:56) about Roszana, who has cerebral palsy and makes food deliveries with her electric wheelchair.

In the foreground, we see Roszana (left) and her companion, Syafiqah (right), waiting to cross the road at a traffic light. In Singapore, signalized road crossings have a button for users to make a "request" to cross the road. Thankfully, the button is at a reachable height and large enough for Syafiqah to use. In the background, we also see someone riding a bicycle on a dedicated cycling path (darker pavement) on a bridge over a canal.

In the photo, we see how infrastructure interacts with different users with varying needs, and how this influences mobility, which then affects access to employment (food deliverer) and services (food delivery customers).

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rs6SB2MwgohH-6gUT_1kzXaZh7SzNTAQH9pM6co2Ebg/edit?usp=sharing

Hi everyone!

Thank you for participating in our session! Your active contribution and valuable ideas have made the session a fruitful and enlightening one.

Here is the link to the Jamboard that we all worked on (view only): https://jamboard.google.com/d/19s0DOo99xoD9awPUfFLS4Rb15abzleUI-l30W_KozFE/viewer

The presentation slides from the session are also available in Shauhrat’s post ^^^ above ^^^.

Finally, if you have any comments and suggestions, feel free to contact Prof Lynette or myself, or simply leave a message here!