A Public Transit System Accessibility Plan

Author : Saeid Nazari Adli
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 188 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (124 download)

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Download or read book Inclusion of Social Justice in Public Transit Planning written by Saeid Nazari Adli and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concerns about discriminatory geographies have brought attention to transit policies and their role in shaping the social and spatial structure of cities. One common area in transit equity is the inclusion of "social justice" in public transit planning. In its simplest form, social justice demands more equitable access for all residents to resources that are provided by a city. In this sense, the impact of the transit system cannot be underestimated as it is a fundamental requirement for people to participate in urban life. However, public transit plans are typically guided by maximising tangible measures such as economic growth and efficiency. The social character of transit systems is often a marginal concern mainly due to the lack of a robust framework to evaluate it. Without a framework, it is difficult to determine if transport policies will produce a just transit system. This thesis builds on theories of social justice and provides planners with a set of tangible measures under a social justice framework. It helps practitioners to rigorously assess transit policies and contributes to current discussions on transportation equity. This study explores three main inter-related questions: 1) Based on an understanding of theories of social justice, what does fairness mean in the domain of transit planning? 2) To what extent can transit systems being spatially just? 3) How can transit projects be evaluated to achieve a more just transit system? The research questions have been recast into four objectives. The first objective is to define a framework of social justice in transit planning. After a thorough review of justice theories, a set of principles are selected to form a theoretical foundation to evaluate justice in transit planning. The findings show transit-based job accessibility as one of main social benefits of a transit system. Moreover, justice in public transit planning is spatial and relative rather than a transcendental concept and should 1) focus on the provision of a minimum level of accessibility, 2) provide better accessibility for low-income areas to reduce inequalities of opportunities, and 3) respect individuals' rights to reach opportunities provided by their cities. This means that the distributional effects of transport policies should be evaluated to account for a set of standards to achieve a minimum level of accessibility for those who are transport disadvantaged. The second objective is to verify the universal nature of the proposed transit justice framework by applying it to four case study cities for a macro-scale cross-sectional comparison. The findings show that transit justice framework can be successfully translated to universal objective measures of social justice and applied in different jurisdictions and contexts with minimal effort. The third objective is to test the framework on a specific project to investigate the temporal change of social justice in transit plans at a meso-scale. The findings show that the proposed justice test produces relatively robust results while being simple to calculate, interpret, and communicate. The final objective is to evaluate social justice in transit systems at a micro-level by applying the proposed framework to two selected transit stations, one located in a transit orientated development and the other located in a suburban residential area. The results show that the transit justice framework can be successfully applied on a micro-scale to a transit station and it objectively investigates and measures the social justice policies. This study provides a thorough understanding of what social justice means in the realm of transit planning. The proposed transit justice framework provides a bridge between conceptual theoretical justice theories and practical policy implication and can be applied at a macro-level as well as a micro-level. The proposed framework can also be utilised to measure justice in transit systems temporally as well as cross-sectionally. The methods have been coded and shared openly to assist transit planners in replicating them with minimal effort. The findings will shed a refreshing light on debates in just outcomes of transit policies and plans and assist transit planners in including tangible measures of social justice.