Transportation Equity

Evaluating Accessibility and Equity Impacts of Pandemic Transit Service Adjustments: Case Study of the San Francisco Bay Area

Ho, Phoebe
Zmud, Johanna
Joan Walker
2025

The COVID-19 pandemic forced transit agencies to quickly adapt to new challenges, with service reductions as part of the response to reduced ridership, rising fiscal pressures, and staffing shortages. However, approaches to service adjustment varied significantly across agencies. While pandemic literature often focuses on ridership impacts, less attention has been given to how transit service changes affect accessibility and equity. This study addresses this gap by examining the impacts of pandemic service adjustments on accessibility and equity; it is important to address this, given the...

Assessing the Environmental, Economic and Social Benefits of Well-Located Workforce Housing

Rohe, W
Cowan, S
Rodriguez, Daniel
1012

The jobs-housing imbalance in many metropolitan areas contributes to long work commutes and the related problems of air pollution, traffic congestion, and loss of both discretionary income and time that could be spent in more productive and meaningful ways. This is a particular problem for low- and moderate-income workers who may have to travel long distances from their places of work to find affordable housing. This article presents a methodology for assessing the potential environmental, economic, and social benefits of constructing new affordable housing close to major employment...

A Spatial Analysis of Health-Related Resources in Three Diverse Metropolitan Areas

Smiley, MJ
Roux, AV Diez
Brines, SJ
Brown, DG
Evenson, KR
Rodriguez, Daniel
2010

Few studies have investigated the spatial clustering of multiple health-related resources. We constructed 0.5 mile kernel densities of resources for census areas in New York City, NY (n=819 block groups), Baltimore, MD (n=737), and Winston-Salem, NC (n=169). Three of the four resource densities (supermarkets/produce stores, retail areas, and recreational facilities) tended to be correlated with each other, whereas park density was less consistently and sometimes negatively correlated with others. Blacks were more...

A Systematic Review of Empirical and Simulation Studies Evaluating the Health Impact of Transportation Interventions

Stankov, I
Garcia, LMT
Mascolli, M
Montes, F
Meisel, JD
Gouveia, N
Sarmiento, O
Rodriguez, Daniel
Hammond, R
Caiaffa, WT
Roux, AV Diez
2020
Urban transportation is an important determinant of health and environmental outcomes, and therefore essential to achieving the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals. To better understand the health impacts of transportation initiatives, we conducted a systematic review of longitudinal health evaluations involving: a) bus rapid transit (BRT); b) bicycle lanes; c) Open Streets programs; and d) aerial trams/cable cars. We also synthesized systems-based simulation studies of the health-related consequences of walking, bicycling, aerial tram, bus and BRT use. Two reviewers screened 3302...

A Spatial Agent-Based Model for the Simulation of Adults' Daily Walking Within a City

Yang, Y
Roux, AV Diez
Auchincloss, AH
Rodriguez, Daniel
Brown, DG
2011

Environmental effects on walking behavior have received attention in recent years because of the potential for policy interventions to increase ...

Leveraging Commuting Patterns and Workplace Charging to Advance Equitable EV Charger Access

Wang, Ruiting
Kwon, Ha-Kyung
Jordan, Katherine H.
Moura, Scott
Boloor, Madhur
Machala, Michael L.
2026

This study introduces a framework for improving accessibility to and quantifying social equity priorities in electric vehicle charging infrastructure through strategic workplace charger placement. We develop a customizable equity evaluation model that quantifies access disparities across demographic groups. This model is used to construct an optimization framework that informs charging infrastructure deployment decisions. Leveraging commuting patterns, we demonstrate in the case study of Oakland, California that strategically placing workplace charging can achieve, on average, a 1.8-fold...

Creating a Data Resource of California Police Stops for Use in Traffic Safety Applications | Safe Transportation Research and Education Center

Griswold, Julia
2025

Traffic stops are one of the most common ways in which the American public interacts with police. Although one of the leading reasons given for police traffic stops is a violation of the vehicle code, there is limited and mixed research on the impact of traditional police traffic enforcement on traffic safety outcomes. At present, few large data resources with an appropriate level of detail exist to facilitate investigations of this type. The 2015 Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) requires all law enforcement agencies in California to collect and submit vehicle (including bicycle)...

Electric Vehicles and Social Equity

Yassine, Ziad
Shaheen, Susan A.
2025

The shift toward electric vehicles (EVs) involves addressing both environmental sustainability and social equity concerns. It underscores the importance of inclusive approaches to ensure fair access to EV technology. As EVs gain traction as a sustainable transportation strategy, it is critical to address disparities in charging infrastructure, vehicle affordability, and environmental justice. There is a need to incorporate EVs into social equity frameworks that include innovative policies, community involvement, and targeted investments in underserved areas. A comprehensive approach is...

Urban and Socioeconomic Disparities in PM2.5 Exposure Across 340 Latin American Cities

Ascencio, Edson J
Barja, Anthony
Montes-Alvis, Jose M
Kephart, Josiah L.
Gouveia, Nelson
Benmarhnia, Tarik
Diez Roux, Ana V.
Bilal, Usama
Miranda, J. Jaime
Carrasco-Escobar, Gabriel
Rodríguez, Daniel A.
2025

Background: Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is a leading global health risk. Latin American cities exhibit some of the world's highest urban PM2.5 levels, yet studies on neighborhood-level PM2.5 exposure and associated disparities in the region are limited. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional ecological analysis of 53,041 neighborhoods across 340 cities in eight Latin American countries, leveraging the SALURBAL dataset. Annual PM2.5 concentrations were derived from satellite data and linked to socioeconomic and urban characteristics. A multilevel model analyzed associations between...

Pedal Power: Operational Models, Opportunities, and Obstacles of Bike Lending in North America

Shaheen, Susan
Wolfe, Brooke
Cohen, Adam
2025

Bike lending offers a service that enables individuals to borrow bicycles for short-term use (i.e., ranging from 2 hours to 36 months), typically from designated locations within cities, campuses, or communities. Unlike bikesharing systems that typically rely on automated kiosks and/or undocked and free-floating devices for public access, bike lending involves a managed program with staff, similar to a library model. These programs can be administered by community organizations, bike shops, public libraries, and other local entities. They are typically community- or membership-based, with...