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Equity and transport

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The definition of a framework for unpacking transport disadvantage and social inequalities factors is a key element for analysing transport and equity. There are three main aspects related to this relationship: 1) to what extent transportation contributes to inequalities; 2) how can equity and social inclusion perspectives help to explain differences in people’s travel behaviours; and 3) how to better consider equity in transport project evaluation and decision making. This requires the development of alternative methods for measuring equity in transport, including accessibility and capability-based measures, and a new understanding of the benefits of achieving a more equitable provision of transportation benefits. The main goal of this article collection is to present research papers with a deep understanding of notions of equity and to disseminate their methodological skills in addressing equity in various (research) contexts and settings.

This includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:

  • Notion of equity: Conceptual framework for defining equity in social goods supply and planning (i.e. transport, education, health);
  • Data: Efforts for characterizing the social equity influence in transportation contexts and use of new data sources for transport (i.e. smart data, social fare systems innovation);
  • Models: Conceptual framework development and/or inclusion of relevant social equity theory in new activity-based models, utility-based models and structural equation modelling;
  • Policy: Use of new social equity model to engage with policy makers and the public in order to develop a wider accessible transportation system and land use policies, interventions, and scenarios;
  • Paradigm shifting: The use of needs (even in terms of safety and security) of transport instead of actual trips for modelling the transport demand.


Guest editors
Floridea Di Ciommo, cambiaMO, Spain
Ariane Dupont-Kieffer, Université Paris-1 Sorbonne, France
Yoram Shiftan, Technion, Israel

  1. For assessing the desirability and feasibility of major transport projects decision makers often recur to ex-ante evaluation methods such as cost-benefit analysis or multi-criteria analysis. In these methods p...

    Authors: Geert te Boveldt, Imre Keseru and Cathy Macharis
    Citation: European Transport Research Review 2020 12:38