Evaluating transport equity in a post-boom & car dominant city : the case of Dublin, Ireland

Transportation equity refers to the fairness with which the impacts (benefits and costs) of transport on society are distributed. Transport infrastructure can have significant equity impacts, although many of these impacts are difficult to evaluate. Costs tend to be particularly high in societies with high levels of car-dependency. In addition, certain social and socio-economic groups can be disproportionately burdened by car-dominated infrastructure and policies, for example: the unemployed; lone-parents; the mobility impaired, and children. The paper outlines and discusses the literature on transportation related equity, which is written from a variety of viewpoints and theoretical traditions. The literature review reveals a number of ways to analyse the equity of transport, but that the scope of these is often limited to impact assessment on a particular social group, or an evaluation of an individual proposed infrastructure project. As a result, the true nature and extent of transportation inequity at the large urban scale may not be fully understood. This limits the potential for area based interventions, for example, to increase the attractiveness of multi-modal transport solutions.This paper proposes a broader methodology that brings together many of the relevant variables, but in a new spatially focussed way, using GIS. Impacts and indicators used include: transport noise; pedestrian severance and casualty risk; accessibility for non-drivers; and socio-economic metrics. This provides an overview of the equity of existing transport infrastructure at the larger urban scale, and can be used to highlight areas that should be targeted for further investigation. The application of the methodology is explored through a case study of Dublin, Ireland.