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Austin, Texas (July 15, 2021)
Access to quality public transport can make communities more equitable by improving access to important opportunities such as employment, health care and healthy eating, especially for those on low incomes and people of color. A new paper published today on the Transportation Research Record identifies six broad categories of equity raising practices that go beyond existing guidelines and could be used by public transportation companies across the country.
“Many of the established practices for understanding and promoting equity in public transportation focus on precise quantitative measurements detached from drivers’ daily experiences,” said Alex Karner, assistant professor of community and regional planning at the University of Texas at Austin and the lead author of the study. “In transit, equity goes way beyond evaluating the distribution of services. We wanted to improve government practices to create fairer and more equitable public transport systems.”
The report examined eight public transport providers in different cities across the country and identified six practices that can help public transport work well for those who need it most. These are:
- Establishing advisory committees to provide more formal, regular and specialized channels for public input than can be achieved through traditional meetings;
- Partnerships with advocacy organizations that can overcome barriers to public participation and engage hard-to-reach populations;
- Inclusion of equity in capital planning to ensure that transit vehicles, maintenance, and system enhancements meet populations;
- Planning with other regional transport companies, which are often a critical place for discussions about equal opportunities that transcend regional boundaries and address issues such as gentrification, housing affordability, commuter-oriented public transport, and other issues;
- If necessary, use of ride-hailing and microtransit solutions to facilitate the use of public transport and to close service gaps; and
- Create an equity culture by changing hiring, contracting and organizational practices to better weave equity principles across the agency.
In addition to defining these broad categories, the paper evaluates each method and provides insight into its limitations and possibilities by assessing the real-world implementation as used by the eight public transport companies included in the report. Highlights include the Tri-County Metropolitan District of Oregon (TriMet) convening of a Transit Equity Advisory Committee, which successfully advocated a reduced fare program and the decriminalization of fare evasion; and TriMet’s subsequent creation of a dedicated Justice, Inclusion and Community Affairs department to support their gender-related goals.
“Ultimately, transport justice is about fairness,” said Karner. “Public transport companies can pursue this goal in a variety of ways. Our main finding is that the best performing companies in this area are committed to integrating equity into all aspects of their day-to-day operations. And that is what they are most likely to be successful in. ”
The transportation companies included in the study are Capital Metro in Austin; the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District; LINK Houston, a Houston-based equity-based nonprofit; the Harris County’s Metropolitan Transit Authority on the Houston Metro; the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority; the Massachusetts Department of Transportation; TriMet; and Rabbittransit, a rural transit operator in southeast Pennsylvania.
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Co-authored by local and regional planning student Kaylyn Levine, the paper was produced in collaboration with partners in the Federal Transit Administration and a community advisory group that was put together to provide input to the broader research effort.
This article, “Equity-Advancing Practices at Public Transit Agencies in the United States,” by Alex Karner and Kaylyn Levin and published in Traffic research record, is freely available for a limited time and can be read here https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/03611981211016861
About the University of Texas at the Austin School of Architecture:
The School of Architecture is a premier school of design and planning, offering degrees in architecture, architectural history, community and regional planning, monument preservation, interior design, landscape architecture, sustainable design and urban planning. Its faculty includes many accomplished and award-winning professionals with a broad range of expertise in the fields of architectural history, design, building systems, technology, sustainability, transportation, Latin American architecture and urbanism, and the social impact of the built environment. The school also sponsors the scholarships through three special research units: the Center for American Architecture and Design, the Center for Sustainable Development, and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
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