Bibliometric analysis of equity in transportation.

This paper aims to map the research landscape in equity and justice in transport and mobility, identifying key publications, authors, institutions, and interdisciplinary connections to inform future research and policy development. A systematic search of scientific articles on equity and justice in transport and mobility was conducted in the Web of Science, resulting in 759 selected articles that were analyzed using bibliometric and network analysis methods. The analysis reveals a growing trend in scientific production since 2013, with the Journal of Transport Geography, Transport Research Part A: Policy and Practice, and the Journal of Transport Policy being the most prominent journals. The most influential authors and institutions are identified, along with the most cited works. Keyword usage trends and thematic analysis show a shift in focus from environmental equity to urban transport, congestion, and accessibility. Cluster analyses highlight focal points and themes, such as accessibility, mobility, social aspects, transport and spatial equity, environmental justice, transport planning, active transport, and methodological evaluations. Co-citation networks reveal three major clusters with differing research focuses: Lukas K. & Martens K.; Litman T. and Currie, G., and Scwanen T. and Cresswell, T. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the existing knowledge in equity and justice in transport and mobility, enabling researchers and policymakers to identify areas requiring further exploration. Additionally, the paper fosters interdisciplinary connections and sets priorities for future research and policy development.

Personal Mobility Choices and Disparities in Carbon Emissions.

The promotion of sustainable mobility choices is a crucial element of transport decarbonization. It requires a fundamental understanding of the choices available to urban dwellers and of the equity and justice implications of green mobility solutions. In this study, we quantified personal mobility-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) and their associations with various land use, built environment, and socioeconomic factors. Our study captured personal, household, and neighborhood-level characteristics that are related to high emissions and disparities in emissions across the study region. We observed that the top 30% of emitters generated 70% of all transportation GHG emissions. Household income, family size, and vehicle ownership were associated with increased mobility emissions, while increased population density was associated with lower emissions. The percentage of visible minorities in a neighborhood was associated with lower emissions, but this effect was small. We further contrasted the spatial distribution of traffic-related air pollution with mobility GHG emissions. The results suggest that individuals who emit less GHG live in areas with higher air pollution. A computer vision-based model was used to predict GHG emissions from aerial images of neighborhoods, demonstrating that areas with high land use mixture were linked to a lower generation of mobility-based GHG emissions.

Evaluating public transit agency responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in seven U.S. regions.

The Covid-19 pandemic's impacts on public transit will be felt for years, if not longer. In a few short weeks in 2020, the nature of day-to-day travel shifted around the world. Many of those who were able to stay at home did so while a large majority of those who needed to continue traveling moved away from public transit if they had alternatives available. For their part, public transit agencies responded with rapid service adjustments during March 2020, making varying efforts to communicate with riders and the public during this time so that users could understand how service was changing and how it would affect them. The impacts of the pandemic were dramatic-public transit ridership dropped by nearly 80% in April 2020 across the United States as the unemployment rate reached 14%-worse than any month during the Great Recession. But agency responses were nonuniform. In this paper, we characterize how seven public transit operators in the United States-those responsible for 55% of all unlinked trips in 2019-adapted service during the pandemic using quantitative performance information and a review of agency press releases. We also assess impacts on riders for whom public transit is essential. We find that pandemic-era changes largely did not change existing disparities between groups, suggesting that baseline inequities did not worsen as overall service levels fell. Understanding transit agency behaviors using different data sources is a first step towards linking agency responses with outcomes. This type of analysis that blends quantitative performance analysis with qualitative data can also provide insight into how agencies can adapt to future crises.

Navigating Health Equity Through Mobility Justice: Youth of Color Organizing for Transportation Equity in Our Backyards.

There is growing awareness that the built environment and transportation affect many aspects of individual and community well-being and health. Built environment and transportation planning and decision-making, however, rarely integrate robust engagement and input from youth, particularly racially/ethnically and economically diverse youth, despite the likelihood that such planning and decisions will affect their futures. Strategies are needed that prepare, engage, and ultimately empower youth in changing systems, processes, and programs that promote equitable mobility access and opportunity for youth now and in these futures. This article describes the development, implementation, actions, and impact of the Youth for Equitable Streets (YES) Fellowship program, through the perspective of the program participants, including the youth (the Fellows), program manager, and program evaluator, focusing on key factors for making this work youth-centered and oriented to successfully influence social change in transportation for mobility justice.

Not quite a block party: COVID-19 street reallocation programs in Seattle, WA and Vancouver, BC.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed mobility inequities within cities. In response, cities are rapidly implementing street reallocation initiatives. These interventions provide space for walking and cycling, however, other mobility needs (e.g., essential workers, deliveries) may be impeded by these reallocation decisions. Informed by mobility justice frameworks, we examined socio-spatial differences in access to street reallocations in Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia. In both cities, more interventions occurred in areas where people of color, particularly Black and Indigenous people, lived. In Seattle, more interventions occurred in areas where people with disabilities, on food stamps, and children lived. In Vancouver, more interventions occurred in areas where recent immigrants lived, or where people used public transit or cycled to work. Street reallocations could be opportunities for cities to redress inequities in mobility and access to public spaces. Going forward, it is imperative to monitor how cities use data and welcome communities to redesign these temporary spaces to be corridors for their own mobility.

The Role of Mobility Digital Ecosystems for Age-Friendly Urban Public Transport: A Narrative Literature Review.

Within the context of the intersection of the global megatrends of urbanisation, ageing societies and digitalisation, this paper explores older people's mobility, with a particular interest in public transport, and a strong consideration of digital/ICT elements. With a focus on (smart) mobility, the paper aims to conceptualise transport, one of the main domains of age-friendly cities as a core element of a smart, age-friendly ecosystem. It also aims to propose a justice-informed perspective for the study of age-friendly smart mobility; to contribute towards a framework for the evaluation of age-friendly smart transport as a core element of the global age-friendly cities programme that comprises mobility practices, digital data, digital networks, material/physical geographies and digital devices and access; and to introduce the term "mobility digital ecosystem" to describe this framework. The paper uses the method of a narrative literature review to weave together a selected range of perspectives from communications, transport, and mobility studies in order to introduce the embeddedness of both communication technology use and mobility practices into their material conditions. Combining insights from communications, mobility and transport and social gerontology with a justice perspective on ICT access and mobility, the paper then develops a framework to study age-friendly smart mobility. What we call a "mobility digital ecosystem" framework comprises five elements-mobility practices, digital data, digital networks, material geographies, digital devices and access to services. The paper contributes a justice-informed perspective that points towards a conceptualisation of age-friendly smart mobility as a core element of the age-friendly cities and communities in the WHO's global age-friendly cities programme.

Informal motorbike taxi drivers and mobility injustice on Hanoi's streets. Negotiating the curve of a new narrative.

The central government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Hanoi's municipal authorities are enthusiastically embracing a series of plans and policies for the capital city to create a sustainable mega-city. This state imaginary privileges 'modern' mobilities, championing highways, a bus rapid transport system, and an elevated metro, while so called 'traditional' means of moving around the city such as motorbikes, bicycles, or cyclos are being strongly discouraged and increasingly marginalised. For example, Hanoi officials are implementing a step-wise ban on motorbikes from downtown streets by 2030, while the majority of the urban population travels by motorbike, with about five million motorbikes plying the city's streets. While such an approach not only creates mobility injustice for lower socio-economic residents of the city as a whole, it threatens to undermine the livelihoods of thousands of informal motorbike taxi drivers (locally known as xe ôm). In this article I engage with the emerging mobility injustice literature to explore how state discourses regarding urban modernisation are impacting the possibilities for Hanoi's xe ôm drivers to maintain access to city streets and viable livelihoods. These drivers must negotiate emerging and often conflicting state policies, their enforcement, as well as new app-based competitors, all of which challenge the equitable distribution of motility and produce important frictions. Nonetheless, xe ôm drivers draw on their agency and creativity during their daily routines to push back, while also creating new narratives regarding their vital role in maintaining neighbourhood security. We thus see how marginalised individuals are counteracting policies they consider unjust, even when this urban agenda is embedded in a politically socialist context.