Contested spaces and subjectivities of transit: Political ecology of a bus rapid transit development in Oakland, California

Behrsin, Ingrid; Benner, Chris

doi:10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2017.05.003

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Mobility justice calls for a recognition of how historical injustices impact present inequalities; seeks to center community and activist voices in transportation planning efforts; and attempts to theorize the pathways by which urban planning becomes depoliticized. A particularly robust discourse on mobility justice concerning bicycling is illustrative of the trends within this literature and useful in providing the scaffolding for which to understand Portland's Green Loop (Rast, 2006;Martens, Golub, & Robinson, 2012;Sheller, 2012;Lubitow & Miller, 2013;Golub & Martens, 2014;Hoffmann, 2016;Behrsin & Benner, 2017).…”

Section: Urban Transportation Development and Mobility Justicementioning

confidence: 99%

Reproducing spatial inequality? The sustainability fix and barriers to urban mobility in Portland, Oregon

2019

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We explore how the language of "just sustainability" may become subsumed into a sustainability fix strategy, depoliticizing the utility of concepts such as justice and/or equity. Building from critical GIS insights, we combine digitized spatial data from participatory mapping exercises and community-organization-based focus groups in Portland, Oregon, regarding a proposed six-mile biking and walking path around downtown. We find that 80% of participants' typical travel destinations are outside of downtown Portland and that participants experience planning and sustainability in a highly localized manner, challenging the equity rationale of downtown investment. We argue the top-down planning model, which presumes the spatial diffusion of benefits is equitable, is inherently ahistorical and fails to benefit those in historically marginalized neighborhoods. Finally, we argue for the value of community-oriented research, which, in this case, inspired a coalition of community organizations to formally oppose a city-led project based on the inequitable distribution of infrastructure benefits.

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Section: Urban Transportation Development and Mobility Justicementioning

confidence: 99%

Reproducing spatial inequality? The sustainability fix and barriers to urban mobility in Portland, Oregon

2019

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“…Transit investments can be evaluated from many perspectives, e.g., user costs and benefits (e.g., accessibility, fares), service quality (e.g., congestion), external impacts (e.g., pollution, noise), economic impacts (e.g., economic opportunities, employment), and regulation and enforcement (e.g., traffic regulation) (Litman, 2016). Making balanced decisions toward the successful realization of social equity goals has proven challenging (Behrsin & Benner, 2017;Walker, 2008) and requires a clear understanding of local political ecology to navigate potentially conflicting goals; for example, whether transit investments should reduce the overall number of private cars or serve vulnerable populations who have few transport options (Grengs, 2010). Martens (2006) argues that existing transit modeling and cost-benefit evaluation practices are demand-based, which exaggerate the benefits of automobile-oriented investments.…”

Section: Equality Justice and Accessibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

A social equity analysis of the U.S. public transportation system based on job accessibility

Yeganeh

Hall

Pearce

et al. 2018

JTLU

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Access to quality public transportation is critical for employment, especially for low-income and minority populations. This study contributes to previous work on equity analyses of the U.S. public transportation system by including the 45 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in a single analysis. Year-2014 Census demographic data were combined with an existing 2014 dataset of transit job accessibility. Then, transit equality and justice indicators were developed and a regression analysis was performed to explore trends in transit job accessibility by race and income. The findings suggest that within individual MSAs, low-income populations and minorities have the highest transit job accessibility. However, the overall transit ridership is low, and in certain MSAs with high transit job accessibility both high and low income populations have high access levels but middle income populations do not. Within individual MSAs, on average, accessibility differences by income are greater than accessibility differences by race. The relative importance of race versus income for injustice increases with MSA size. In upper mid-size and large MSAs, differences by race increase. Also, the differences by race are greater among low-income populations. Accessibility-related equality and justice indicators are only one of many issues that comprise the wider discussion of equity.

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“…Over the past decade, the city has become more committed to sustainable policies, as evidenced by the signing of the New Covenant of Mayors for Climate Change and Energy in 2016, the development of a City Council Strategy for Managing Adaptation to Climate Change in 2017, and the successful bid to Green Capital of Europe in 2020 (Pedro, Silva, and Pinheiro 2019). The Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA) also contrasts significantly with the latest developments in transport planning and policies in other metropolitan areas around the world (Behrsin and Benner 2017;Legacy, Curtis, and Scheurer 2017;McArthur 2019). First, it remains heavily politicized, with frequent strikes at the organizational level and squabbles between political parties at the municipal level.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating knowledge forms in public transport planning and policies: the case of the Lisbon metropolitan area

Goulart

Tavares

2022

Urban Research & Practice

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Public policy debates about transport planning are often focused on more technical analyses to the detriment of other forms of knowledge. Combining document analysis and interviews with relevant actors, we identify a clear imbalance in the design of transport planning in Lisbon's Metropolitan Area. There is a clear prevalence of political knowledge, with conflict among key actors as the major source of knowledge and the neglect of other forms, particularly those associated with deliberative processes. The findings also suggest that these imbalances decrease the legitimacy and optimality of potential solutions to complex problems in Lisbon's transport policy.

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Contested spaces and subjectivities of transit: Political ecology of a bus rapid transit development in Oakland, California

Cited by 9 publications

References 35 publications

Reproducing spatial inequality? The sustainability fix and barriers to urban mobility in Portland, Oregon

Reproducing spatial inequality? The sustainability fix and barriers to urban mobility in Portland, Oregon

A social equity analysis of the U.S. public transportation system based on job accessibility

Integrating knowledge forms in public transport planning and policies: the case of the Lisbon metropolitan area

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