Equity and justice conceptualizations, dimensions and standards for urban transportation planning: a scoping literature review

Keywords: transportation, equity, justice, planning, standards, conceptualizations, literature review
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Transportation equity is characterised by a system which fairly produces, distributes, and reproduces transportation-related benefits and burdens among populations. Definitions of transportation equity are far from being unique and vary in how they characterise equity dimensions, philosophically conceptualize fairness and their underlying principles, and assess when a system is fair or unfair. The number of academic articles tackling this concept is increasing year by year, and there is a growing need to comprehensively understand how fairness in transportation is theorized and applied in the academic literature. As a result, this study aims to examine the extent and nature of the literature related to transportation equity. This study reviews a wide breath of academic literature relating to transportation planning, provision, connection to residential location and activities, related externalities, and perspectives of transportation users. The JBI Scoping Review approach is used, results of the search are screened blindly and independently by two reviewers at two levels. The first is the title screen and the second is the full-text review. Conflicting votes will be decided by a third reviewer. Evidence from each included study is extracted by one qualified academic colleague from the review team. The results of this study aims to (i) identify what equity conceptualizations, standards, and dimensions are operationalized in the literature, and (ii) identify the gaps in evidence and areas for further inquiry to guide a research programme to develop definitions, measures, and recommendations for evaluating equity.