Evaluating Social and Spatial Equity in Public Transport: A Case Study

ABSTRACT

The present study aims to evaluate public transport access distribution based on a framework of vertical equity principles. In this method, traffic analysis zones (TAZs) are analyzed by comparing the estimated transit demand with the existing geographical distribution of the network's benefits (e.g., accessibility and mobility). The framework deploys the concept of connectivity power to measure the distribution of a transit system's supply. On the other hand, demand is measured by an exhaustive index, the weighted average of four social indicators, namely the number of low-income people, the population, the households without vehicles, and the disabled in the TAZs. These weights can differ from city to city depending on culture, politics, social behavior, and costs of effective parameters such as fuel, parking, and tickets in that particular city. The framework was applied to the comprehensive transit network of Tehran, Iran. Finally, diagonal and radical lines linking the city's southwest to its northeast are proposed.

KEYWORDS:

• Public transportation
• social equity
• sustainable development
• accessibility
• planning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The first classification(yellow) include stations that their power are less than 1,000,000(Veh Person Km2 /h); the second classification(purple) include stations that their power are between 1,000,000 to 2,000,000(Veh Person Km2 /h); the third classification(green) include stations that their power are between 2,000,000 to 3,000,000(Veh Person Km2 /h); the fourth classification(pink) include stations that their power are between 3,000,000 to 4,000,000(Veh Person Km2 /h); the fifth classification(red) include stations that their power are more than 5,000,000(Veh Person Km2 /h).