Equity in urban transport

Abstract

Urban transport policies have not traditionally considered equity or fairness of the outcomes in the transport policy and projects design. Since India is undergoing rapid urbanization with increasing inequality, the recent push towards sustainable transport demands a need to consider fairness to all groups of population with varying capacity and needs. The paper has studied available literature on sustainability and equity assessment methods with an understanding of the Indian policymaking context to develop a theoretical framework that can assess equity in transport policies. For this purpose, authors have studied existing methodologies of assessing economic, environmental and social dimensions of transport sustainability in international cases. The study has developed a theoretical framework for equity assessment of policies in India through aggregate indicators and context-specific variables. The study has also identified the major challenges and research gaps