IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirb/v43y2016i3p540-560.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Non-stop equity: Assessing daily intersections between transit accessibility and social disparity across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA)

Author

Listed:
  • Ahmed El-Geneidy
  • Ron Buliung
  • Ehab Diab
  • Dea van Lierop
  • Myriam Langlois
  • Alexander Legrain

Abstract

Public transportation systems generate economic benefits that can potentially reduce social disparities between populations when such benefits are distributed evenly within a region. However, the achievement of equity in the allocation of public resources is not easy to accomplish for land use and transportation planning agencies. This research seeks to determine whether people residing in socially disadvantaged areas in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), Canada, experience the same levels of transit accessibility as those living in other areas over the course of a day. Comparisons are presented in terms of regional accessibility, trends by social decile, spatial distribution of accessibility during the day, and travel time impacts. Findings suggest that residents in socially disadvantaged areas have equitable if not better transit accessibility to jobs than socially advantaged groups, and this is reflected in shorter travel times. However, the degree and impact of this advantage varies over the course of the day. Findings from this research can be of interest to transportation planners, engineers, and policy makers as it highlights deficiencies with current equity assessment practices that do not take into account variation in transit services over a 24-h time period.

Suggested Citation

  • Ahmed El-Geneidy & Ron Buliung & Ehab Diab & Dea van Lierop & Myriam Langlois & Alexander Legrain, 2016. "Non-stop equity: Assessing daily intersections between transit accessibility and social disparity across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA)," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 43(3), pages 540-560, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:43:y:2016:i:3:p:540-560
    DOI: 10.1177/0265813515617659
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0265813515617659
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0265813515617659?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Grengs, Joe, 2010. "Job accessibility and the modal mismatch in Detroit," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 42-54.
    2. Paul Anderson & Andrew Owen & David Levinson, 2012. "The Time Between: Continuously-defined accessibility functions for schedule-based transportation systems," Working Papers 000098, University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group.
    3. Scott, Darren M. & Horner, Mark W., 2008. "Examining The Role of Urban Form In Shaping People’s Accessibility to Opportunities: An Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis," The Journal of Transport and Land Use, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, vol. 1(2), pages 89-119.
    4. Donald S. Houston, 2005. "Methods to Test the Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 81(4), pages 407-434, October.
    5. Delbosc, Alexa & Currie, Graham, 2011. "Using Lorenz curves to assess public transport equity," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 1252-1259.
    6. Jones, Peter & Lucas, Karen, 2012. "The social consequences of transport decision-making: clarifying concepts, synthesising knowledge and assessing implications," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 4-16.
    7. David Levinson, 1998. "Accessibility and the Journey to Work," Working Papers 199802, University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group.
    8. Owen, Andrew & Levinson, David M., 2015. "Modeling the commute mode share of transit using continuous accessibility to jobs," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 110-122.
    9. Mizuki Kawabata & Qing Shen, 2006. "Job Accessibility as an Indicator of Auto-Oriented Urban Structure: A Comparison of Boston and Los Angeles with Tokyo," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 33(1), pages 115-130, February.
    10. Foth, Nicole & Manaugh, Kevin & El-Geneidy, Ahmed M., 2013. "Towards equitable transit: examining transit accessibility and social need in Toronto, Canada, 1996–2006," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 1-10.
    11. Richard Shearmur & William J Coffey, 2002. "A Tale of Four Cities: Intrametropolitan Employment Distribution in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Ottawa – Hull, 1981 – 1996," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 34(4), pages 575-598, April.
    12. Kaplan, Sigal & Popoks, Dmitrijs & Prato, Carlo Giacomo & Ceder, Avishai (Avi), 2014. "Using connectivity for measuring equity in transit provision," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 82-92.
    13. John F. Kain, 1968. "Housing Segregation, Negro Employment, and Metropolitan Decentralization," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 82(2), pages 175-197.
    14. Williams, Alan & Cookson, Richard, 2000. "Equity in health," Handbook of Health Economics, in: A. J. Culyer & J. P. Newhouse (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 35, pages 1863-1910, Elsevier.
    15. Alan T. Murray & Rex Davis, 2001. "Equity in Regional Service Provision," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 557-600, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Boisjoly, Geneviève & El-Geneidy, Ahmed, 2016. "Daily fluctuations in transit and job availability: A comparative assessment of time-sensitive accessibility measures," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 73-81.
    2. Wessel, Nate & Allen, Jeff & Farber, Steven, 2017. "Constructing a routable retrospective transit timetable from a real-time vehicle location feed and GTFS," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 92-97.
    3. Shengxiao Li & Luoye Chen & Pengjun Zhao, 2019. "The impact of metro services on housing prices: a case study from Beijing," Transportation, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 1291-1317, August.
    4. Grisé, Emily & El-Geneidy, Ahmed, 2017. "Evaluating the relationship between socially (dis)advantaged neighbourhoods and customer satisfaction of bus service in London, U.K," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 166-175.
    5. Allen, Jeff & Farber, Steven, 2019. "Sizing up transport poverty: A national scale accounting of low-income households suffering from inaccessibility in Canada, and what to do about it," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 214-223.
    6. Campbell, Kayleigh B. & Rising, James A. & Klopp, Jacqueline M. & Mbilo, Jacinta Mwikali, 2019. "Accessibility across transport modes and residential developments in Nairobi," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 77-90.
    7. Karner, Alex, 2018. "Assessing public transit service equity using route-level accessibility measures and public data," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 24-32.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pyrialakou, V. Dimitra & Gkritza, Konstantina & Fricker, Jon D., 2016. "Accessibility, mobility, and realized travel behavior: Assessing transport disadvantage from a policy perspective," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 252-269.
    2. Merlin, Louis A. & Hu, Lingqian, 2017. "Does competition matter in measures of job accessibility? Explaining employment in Los Angeles," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 77-88.
    3. Ben-Elia, Eran & Benenson, Itzhak, 2019. "A spatially-explicit method for analyzing the equity of transit commuters' accessibility," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 31-42.
    4. Cui, Boer & Boisjoly, Geneviève & El-Geneidy, Ahmed & Levinson, David, 2019. "Accessibility and the journey to work through the lens of equity," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 269-277.
    5. Legrain, Alexander & Buliung, Ron & El-Geneidy, Ahmed M., 2016. "Travelling fair: Targeting equitable transit by understanding job location, sectorial concentration, and transit use among low-wage workers," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1-11.
    6. Xiaoshu Cao & Huiling Chen & Feiwen Liang & Wulin Wang, 2018. "Measurement and Spatial Differentiation Characteristics of Transit Equity: A Case Study of Guangzhou, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-17, April.
    7. Sharma, Gajanand & Patil, Gopal R., 2021. "Public transit accessibility approach to understand the equity for public healthcare services: A case study of Greater Mumbai," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    8. Armando Cartenì & Luca D’Acierno & Mariano Gallo, 2020. "A Rational Decision-Making Process with Public Engagement for Designing Public Transport Services: A Real Case Application in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-26, August.
    9. Seongman Jang & Youngsoo An & Changhyo Yi & Seungil Lee, 2017. "Assessing the spatial equity of Seoul’s public transportation using the Gini coefficient based on its accessibility," International Journal of Urban Sciences, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 91-107, January.
    10. Guzman, Luis A. & Oviedo, Daniel & Rivera, Carlos, 2017. "Assessing equity in transport accessibility to work and study: The Bogotá region," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 236-246.
    11. Camporeale, Rosalia & Caggiani, Leonardo & Ottomanelli, Michele, 2019. "Modeling horizontal and vertical equity in the public transport design problem: A case study," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 184-206.
    12. Eun Jin Shin, 2020. "Disparities in access to opportunities across neighborhoods types: a case study from the Los Angeles region," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 475-501, April.
    13. Xiao, Weiye & Wei, Yehua Dennis & Wan, Neng, 2021. "Modeling job accessibility using online map data: An extended two-step floating catchment area method with multiple travel modes," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    14. Wei, Ran & Liu, Xiaoyue & Mu, Yongjian & Wang, Liming & Golub, Aaron & Farber, Steven, 2017. "Evaluating public transit services for operational efficiency and access equity," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 70-79.
    15. Gallo, Mariano, 2018. "Improving equity of urban transit systems with the adoption of origin-destination based taxi fares," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 38-55.
    16. Zhao, Pengjun & Cao, Yushu, 2020. "Commuting inequity and its determinants in Shanghai: New findings from big-data analytics," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 20-37.
    17. Deboosere, Robbin & El-Geneidy, Ahmed, 2018. "Evaluating equity and accessibility to jobs by public transport across Canada," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 54-63.
    18. Cheng, Jianquan & Bertolini, Luca, 2013. "Measuring urban job accessibility with distance decay, competition and diversity," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 100-109.
    19. Boisjoly, Geneviève & Serra, Bernardo & Oliveira, Gabriel T. & El-Geneidy, Ahmed, 2020. "Accessibility measurements in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba and Recife, Brazil," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    20. Martens, Karel & Golub, Aaron & Robinson, Glenn, 2012. "A justice-theoretic approach to the distribution of transportation benefits: Implications for transportation planning practice in the United States," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 684-695.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:43:y:2016:i:3:p:540-560. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.