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Justice and Equity in Transportation and Urbanism

Justice and equity manifests in many different ways in transportation and urbanism. This guide presents a number of resources to help you engage with the work necessary to make these systems just.

Transit, Justice and Equity

Readings on Transit, Justice and Equity

Boarnet, M. G., Giuliano, G., Hou, Y., & Shin, E. J. (2017). First/last mile transit access as an equity planning issue. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 103, 296–310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2017.06.011 

 

Dugger, C. W. (2010, February 21). A Bus System Reopens Rifts in South Africa. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/world/africa/22bus.html

 

Garrett, M., & Taylor, B. (1999). Reconsidering Social Equity in Public Transit. Berkeley Planning Journal, 13(1). https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1mc9t108

 

Giuliano, G. (2011). Transportation Policy: Public Transit, Settlement Patterns, and Equity in the United States. In N. Brooks, K. Donaghy, & G.-J. Knapp (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Urban Economics and Planning. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195380620.013.0026

 

Glaeser, E. L., Kahn, M. E., & Rappaport, J. (2008). Why Do the Poor Live in Cities? The Role of Public Transportation. Journal of Urban Economics, 63(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2006.12.004

 

Grengs, J. (2005). The abandoned social goals of public transit in the neoliberal city of the USA. City, 9(1), 51–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604810500050161

 

Grengs, J. (2002). Community-Based Planning as a Source of Political Change: The Transit Equity Movement of Los Angeles’ Bus Riders Union. Journal of the American Planning Association, 68(2), 165–178. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944360208976263

 

Karner, A., & Golub, A. (2015). Comparison of Two Common Approaches to Public Transit Service Equity Evaluation. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2531, 170–179. https://doi.org/10.3141/2531-20

 

Karner, A., & Duckworth, R. (2019). ‘Pray for transit’: Seeking transportation justice in metropolitan Atlanta. Urban Studies, 56(9), 1882–1900. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098018779756

 

Loh, P. (2007). T Riders’ Union: A Tale of Two Campaigns in Boston. Reimagine! https://www.reimaginerpe.org/node/325

 

Lopez, R. (2005). Racial Segregation and Transportation Justice in an Urban Community: The Case of the Boston T Riders Union. Boston University School of Public Health. http://russlopez.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/Boston_T_Riders_Union_Case_Study.37140131.doc

 

Lowe, K. (2014). Bypassing Equity? Transit Investment and Regional Transportation Planning. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 34(1), 30–44. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X13519474

 

Lowe, K., & Grengs, J. (2018). Private Donations for Public Transit: The Equity Implications of Detroit’s Public–Private Streetcar. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 0739456X18761237. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X18761237

 

Maciag, M. (2014, February 25). Public Transportation’s Demographic Divide. Governing. https://www.governing.com/topics/transportation-infrastructure/gov-public-transportation-riders-demographic-divide-for-cities.html

 

Mann, E. (2004). Los Angeles Bus Riders Derail the MTA. In R. D. Bullard, G. S. Johnson, & A. O. Torres (Eds.), Highway Robbery (Cambridge, MA; pp. 33–48). South End Press.

Wexler, H., & Demetrakas, J. (1999). Bus Riders Union. https://mediaburn.org/video/bus-riders-union/ 

 

Peñalosa, E. (2013, September). Why buses represent democracy in action. TEDCity 2.0. https://www.ted.com/talks/enrique_penalosa_why_buses_represent_democracy_in_action (BIPOC author)

 

Sanchez, T. W. (2008). Poverty, Policy, and Public Transportation. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 42(5), 833–841. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2008.01.011

 

Sanchez, T. W., Shen, Q., & Peng, Z.-R. (2004). Transit Mobility, Jobs Access and Low-income Labour Participation in US Metropolitan Areas. Urban Studies, 41(7), 1313–1331. https://doi.org/10.1080/0042098042000214815

 

Taylor, B. D., & Morris, E. A. (2015). Public transportation objectives and rider demographics: Are transit’s priorities poor public policy? Transportation, 42(2), 347–367. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-014-9547-0 

 

Thomas, J. (2017). Buses, But Not Spaces For All: Histories of Mass Resistance & Student Power on Public Transportation in Mexico & The United States. Scripps Senior Theses. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1068

 

Wei, R., Liu, X., Mu, Y., Wang, L., Golub, A., & Farber, S. (2017). Evaluating public transit services for operational efficiency and access equity. Journal of Transport Geography, 65, 70–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2017.10.010 (BIPOC author)

 

Yan, J. (2013). Rousing the Sleeping Giant: Administrative Enforcement of Title VI and New Routes to Equity in Transit Planning. California Law Review, 101(4), 1131. https://doi.org/10.15779/Z38M51J (BIPOC author)