Equity in mobility, India
The project aims to identify gaps and opportunities in existing transport systems by examining existing policies followed by qualitative interviews with key stakeholders
Background:
Transportation equity seeks fairness in mobility and accessibility across class, gender and for differently abled people. It enables access to social and economic opportunity through the provision of equal levels of access for all people to all places. As a pressing issue facing transportation policymakers today, the question of transportation equity is also one of the most complicated. Access to reliable and affordable transportation is essential to addressing poverty, unemployment, obesity, and a variety of other social ills. New mobility technologies make change and disruption of the transportation network inevitable, and are an opportunity to build equitable and sustainable transport systems. Policies and interventions need to be designed and implemented with an ‘‘equity lens’’ to ensure that benefits reach the most hard-to-reach segments of the population and to avoid intervention/policy -generated inequalities.
Method:
The proposed work will identify gaps and opportunities in existing transport systems by examining existing policies followed by qualitative interviews with key stakeholders. Based on the findings, a smartphone application for mobility mapping will be developed and tested. Future work will be developing a participatory approach for uptake of the application, fostering opportunities with “new mobility” options such as transport sharing, ride hailing, car pool apps, micro transit services etc. This is also an opportunity to foster relationships with the state transportation and industry partners.
Our external collaborators:
- Dr Kalpana Viswanath, Co-founder and CEO, Safetipin, Supporting Safer Cities, India
- Dr Naveen Bagalkot, Researcher and Course-Lead, Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, India
