A central issue in urban inequity has to do with distributive justice in the costs and benefits associated with urban transport, and whether certain population groups are systematically disadvantaged about mobility, accessibility, affordability, and externalities, the preponderant factors in transport poverty. This article proposes a methodology for analyzing how investment in transport infrastructure and non-housing construction, mobility levels (trip distances, times, and speeds) and the associated trip costs (monetary, accidents, pollution, and energy consumption) are distributed across the different socioeconomic quintiles of a city. The methodology was applied to the real-world case of Santiago de Chile. The results showed that compared with the lowest income quintile, people in the highest income quintile made 1.2 times more trips at an average speed 1.6 times higher. In relation to costs, the richest quintile generated 6.7 times as much pollution and used 7 times as much energy but consumed a significantly lower share of their income (10% vs. 45%). In addition, the top quintile was the beneficiary of 2.5 times more investment in both transport infrastructure and new construction space for commercial activities and services over the period considered. Finally, private car use in the top quintile was 5.3 times greater. This transport mode accounts for 6.8 times more of the accident rate than public transport, bicycles, or walking combined. This clearly inequitable scenario points to the needs for progressive policies that target lower income groups and promote a more rational use of cars in view of their negative impacts on the city.
Most studies of public transport accessibility have focused on proximity to stops, walking distances or time to reach them. This approach ignores other accessibility barriers, such as the quality of the urban environment of these walks. The aim of this research is to analyze both accessibility to public transport stops and the quality of the urban walking environment, exploring fairness issues across the city in terms of these two dimensions. The proposed methodology considers the definition of two indicators: walking accessibility to public transport stops and quality of the walking environment, considering different attributes and dimensions. These indicators are later used to develop a fairness analysis at the local and metropolitan level, using Lorenz curves, Gini coefficient, and Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) poverty measures. A diagnosis based on these indicators for Santiago de Chile allows us to suggest public policy priorities to improve accessibility to public transport and promote modal shift. The results show that 12 out of 34 municipalities in Santiago are deprived of one or both dimensions, not managing to achieve minimum fairness standards. Moreover, since a correlation between low income and poor access and urban space quality is detected, urban fairness across the city would benefit from centralized urban policies not depending on the budget of each administrative division.
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