Towards equitable transit: examining transit accessibility and social need in Toronto, Canada, 1996–2006

Nicole Foth, Kevin Manaugh and Ahmed M. El-Geneidy

Journal of Transport Geography, 2013, vol. 29, issue C, 1-10

Abstract: The location of transit infrastructure distributes publicly-funded benefits to residents throughout a region. However, these benefits are not always distributed equally among different population groups. This research seeks to determine whether the benefits of Toronto’s public transit system are equitably distributed, and how these benefits change from 1996 to 2006 after the implementation of several transit projects in the region. We develop a methodology using a social indicator based on census tract level socio-economic characteristics to measure the relationship between social disadvantage and accessibility to jobs and transit travel time in the Toronto region over time. Transit equity is examined at three levels: spatially, temporally, and by job type. We find the range in accessibility and transit travel time narrows over the 10year period. In addition, the most socially disadvantaged census tracts have statistically significantly better accessibility and lower transit travel times relative to the rest of the region in both 1996 and in 2006. Our findings show that Toronto has a generally equitable transit system that benefits those in social need, who are likely to gain the most from transit. The methodology proposed presents a useful way to bring issues of social equity directly into the land use and transportation planning process.

Keywords: Accessibility; Equity; Travel time; Transit infrastructure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (105)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692312003067

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:29:y:2013:i:c:p:1-10

DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2012.12.008

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Transport Geography is currently edited by Frank Witlox

More articles in Journal of Transport Geography from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().