Beyond Accessibility and Behavioral Outcomes: Re-conceptualizing Equity in Transportation through the Capabilities Approach

Abstract

In the past decades, transportation equity has attracted increasing attention from transportation researchers and policymakers. Nonetheless, there is a lack of theoretical understanding of transportation equity. The dissertation engages the Capability Approach of Sen and Nussbaum as a theory of justice and well-being to conceptualize transportation equity as the process of the production of the equality of mobility capabilities, the substantial freedom people have to travel. Specifically, I propose an equity evaluative framework of five evaluation domains, including 1) Access to basic resources, services, and activities sites; 2) The freedom of physical movement around places; 3) Opportunities for active travel (walking and bicycling); 4) Opportunities to conduct safe and psychologically satisfied trips; 5) Access to political engagement activities. The dissertation also applies the CA framework to two different empirical contexts. One assesses the inequalities of mobility outcomes and capabilities of traveling within low-car ownership households. The results reveal that low-car ownership people of different socio-economic groups achieve different mobility outcomes under the different levels of mobility capabilities. The analysis suggests the joint evaluation of mobility capability and outcomes in informing transportation inequity and disadvantage. The second examines the inequalities of travel mood among different socio-demographic groups and how mobility capabilities, measured as modal options and access destination opportunities, interact with travel mood. The results reveal the significant impacts of mobility capabilities on travel mood and the moderation effects of mobility capabilities on the relationship between mode and mood. The findings highlight the importance of explicit consideration of mobility capabilities– in policy debates and planning initiatives. The concluding chapter contextualizes these findings within the transportation literature and proposes several take-away for policy and future research directions.