Abstract

Levels of social inequity are rising in cities globally – and there is increasing interest concerning how to reverse these trends, and what the role of transport might be. This edited collection examines how transport systems and infrastructure investments lead to inequitable travel behaviours, with different socio-demographic groups using particular parts of the transport system and accessing varied activities and opportunities. Transport planning has conventionally focused on providing for increased levels of mobility, initially in terms of highway capacity for the private car, but increasingly with infrastructure provision for public transport, walking and cycling. The distribution of use of the transport systems and activities that follow has often been overlooked, assuming that all population cohorts have similar opportunities of use. At best, the concern for equity has been on procedural issues (Hay, 1995), e.g. whether a transport project is delivered in a fair manner. This has clearly not resulted in a social equitable transport system, with a fair level of access to transport, opportunities, livelihood, education, and resources to all members of society. Our understanding of social equity issues, in relation to transport, is still being developed. There are difficulties in understanding many important issues, including: what an ‘appropriate’ level of social equity is, how this can be measured, how and why this might differ by person and context, and even over time. Following this, we may seek to develop appropriate policy responses in different contexts. In the end, we wish to understand how transport projects can be more effectively used to improve social equity. Helping to achieve social equity has not conventionally been seen as the domain of the transport planner but, in our unequal contemporary societies, this goal has become critical. The aim of this book is to explore the spatial and social equity impacts associated with transport systems, city planning and infrastructure investment, using international case studies. The contributions cover the main dimensions of equity as identified in the litera- ture (e.g., Levinson, 2010; Thomopoulos et al., 2009; van Wee et al., 2011). One important dimension is horizontal versus vertical equity. Horizontal equity concerns the provision of equal resources to individuals or groups considered equal in ability and is related to the concepts of fairness or egalitarianism. Vertical equity concerns the redistribution of resources between individuals of different abilities and needs and is related to the concepts of social justice and inclusion. The inequity of contemporary life demands a strengthened focus on vertical equity. A second typology is equity of opportunity and equity of out- come. Equity of opportunity concerns the extent to which population groups gain equal levels of access to opportunities, such as jobs, education and healthcare. Transport equity of outcome implies that society ensures that disadvantaged people actually succeed in getting a high quality job, education and healthcare. Consider all of the countries we live in – and there is little of this form of substantive equity.