Towards Transportation for All: The Mobilizing Justice Workshop Outcomes Report Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge the following organizations for their support and assistance with the development of this report, and the 2019 Mobilizing Justice workshop: The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada The University of Toronto Transportation Research Institute (UTTRI) The School of Cities at the University of Toronto The Department of Human Geography at the University of Toronto Scarborough The Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto The Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering at the University of Toronto The Faculty of Applied Sciences and Engineering at the University of Toronto The University of Toronto Scarborough 2020 Lead Author: Matthew Palm Cover Photo Credit: Jeff Allen Principal Investigator: Steven Farber Co-Investigator: Amer Shalaby Towards Transportation for All: With support from: Pat Doherty The Mobilizing Justice Workshop Outcomes Report is licensed under a Creative commons Published by: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Mobilizing Justice License. Department of Human Geography University of Toronto Scarborough ISBN 978-0-7727-6453-9 2 Contents Summary 3-5 Measuring Transport Equity 17-18 6-7 Introduction 1. Access to Destinations 19 2. Multi-modality 20 Local Government Perspectives 8 3. Activity Participation 21 Social geography as a challenge to transport equity 8 4. Consumer Surplus 22 5. Travel Time Savings 23 1. Housing, Gentrification, and the Suburbanization of 9 Poverty Conclusions—Multiple Metrics for a Multifaceted 24 2. Sprawl and weather 10 Problem 3. Supporting Urban Indigenous Populations 11 Industry Perspectives on Tranportation Equity 25 Social equity and changes in the transportation sector 12 1. Equity challenges in the provision of new transport 26 1. Transit is not keeping up with demand, competition 12 technologies 2. A growing digital divide 13 2. Opportunities to achieve more inclusive, equitable outcomes 27 3. Industry perspectives on regulation 28 How Canadian cities are tackling transport inequities 13 Towards a Shared Vision of Transport Equity in Canada 29-30 Vancouver - Edmonton -Toronto 14 Montreal - Winnipeg - Ottawa 15 Research Needs for Building Equitable Transportation 31-33 Systems in Canada Research needs of cities 16 References 34 Conclusions 16 3 agencies to serve disadvantaged in transportation. Summary travellers who are relocating to Canada has not. Canadian localities communities with lower levels of have filled this gap on their own. transit service. Transit agencies are adopting For planners in the prairies, low- discounted fare programs to support density suburbanization makes it disadvantaged travellers. challenging to provide equitable, Local governments are increasingly multimodal transportation systems, incorporating equity analysis into their Mobilizing Justice began as a two- especially in cold winter months. short- and long-range plans to ensure day workshop bringing researchers, Providing equitable transportation to that disadvantaged travellers benefit government stakeholders, and indigenous urban Canadians is also a from transportation investments. industry together. The project started growing focus of Canadian planners, with two goals: to develop a shared particularly in Winnipeg. Planners need support from vision for equitable transportation Existing transportation inequities are researchers to define, measure planning among academics in exacerbated by a lack of investment and plan for transport equity Canada, and to identify the research in transit relative to population growth needs of stakeholders preparing for in many places. Furthermore, the Practitioners at the workshop called the equity impacts of new mobility arrival of new technologies like ride- for researchers to support the technologies.This brief summarizes hailing is raising concerns about development of communicable equity the workshop’s findings. digitally-disconnected households metrics that are holistic enough to being left behind, yet data on these capture the diversity of Canadian Localities and regional planning populations and their needs is sparse. travellers’ needs. Practitioners also agencies are increasingly highlighted the need for research concerned with providing Localities are responding to into forging new transportation equitable transportation transport inequities without planning processes through tools like federal guidance or support participatory budgeting. Finally, many In the country’s three largest practitioners expressed concerns metropolitan areas,inner-city Federal governments in the U.S. and about the lack of consensus on what gentrification and the suburbanization U.K. have provided guidance and transport equity means and how to of poverty are making it harder for resources to support equity planning define equitable outcomes. 4 Key Themes for a Canadian Vision for Transportation Equity Industry sees challenges and opportunities for equity and new transportation technologies, embraces regulation Through a series of small group discussions, workshop participants identified the key themes that should be included Industry voices at the workshop highlighted companies’ reluctance to in a Canadian framework for transportation equity. They also gather demographic data on individual riders. This presents a major identified knowledge gaps preventing policymaking in these barrier to identifying the equity impacts of new technologies. Firms like Uber expressed a preference for partnering with academics areas. The themes are: for detailed equity analysis to protect individuals’ identities. Industry also see technologies creating more inclusive transportation systems Affordability by providing cost-effective solutions to the challenges of underserved Canadian planners should strive to ensure that fare costs do not groups, as in the case of Uber’s WAV service for the mobility impaired, inhibit disadvantaged Canadians’ travel. Canadian transit agencies and Pantonium’s on-demand transit for night shift workers. Sidewalk rely more on fares than agencies in many other countries, making Labs highlighted the role of affordable housing in transit and active- fare costs a significant issue for disadvantaged travellers here. travel rich communities in providing locational affordability forToronto The potential for discounted fare programs to improve the travel residents, and Zygg highlighted the potential for shareable e-bikes to outcomes of disadvantaged Canadians is not well understood. provide a fast, safe, affordable alternative to driving through clogged city streets. Finance equity Industry panelists expressed support for regulations that reward or Canadian taxpayers support road infrastructure to a much larger incentivize shared use of vehicles, including congestion pricing. They extent than other modes, and participants believed that a just also supported more effective regulation of curb space to ensure that transportation system should distribute resources more equitably. disadvantaged travelers are not denied access to destinations. Finally, However, the extent to which Canadian transportation funding is one industry representative called for the creation of public agencies fairly or justly distributed—by mode, by community, and relative to that operate as “data trusts” that can host the data generated by new need—and the impact of those inequities is not documented. technologies. These entities can ensure that cities’ data will be used in equitable, transparent ways. Multi-modality An equitable transportation system provides travellers with multiple options to reach their destinations. Right now in Canada, investments in active travel infrastructure in Canada favour higher 5 income neighbourhoods. Planners need support in identifying how to provide multi-modal infrastructure in a more equitable Research Needs Identified for manner. Achieving Equitable Transportation Systems Enabling people to thrive An equitable transportation system does not act as a barrier for people to participate in the activities they want and need to 1. Canada needs a national survey of transportation participate in. Unfortunately, car-centric infrastructure and lack disadvantage across its cities.This survey needs to document of transit is putting many Canadians at risk of transport poverty. the causes, extent and impact of transport inequities Transport poverty occurs when a lack of transportation options on disadvantaged communities, including low-income compounds the problems experienced by disadvantaged households, recent immigrants, indigenous urban residents, communities. Research is needed to identify what standards of rural residents and refugees. transportation service can prevent transport poverty. Inclusivity 2. Local planners need standardized and holistic metrics Contemporary design and planning of transportation systems to assess the potential impacts of their decisions on often considers only the “typical” or “average” traveller. In reality, disadvantaged travellers from these and other groups. there is no ‘average’ traveller. Practitioners need new metrics of transportation system performance that reflect the diversity of Canadian travellers’ 3. Cities need to develop real-time, joint data collection across needs. all modes that can present an “un-washed” picture of travel in cities. Safety An equitable transportation system provides safety to travellers and those impacted by travel externalities.