Equity in transport: Learning from the policy domains of housing, health care and education

Introduction The aim of this paper is to explore the equity principles in three main domains of government intervention (health, education and especially housing) and to draw lessons for the domain of transport. In line with the burgeoning literature, we consider equity in transport to be primarily – albeit not only – concerned with the level of accessibility conferred by the transport-land use system to persons. While some (recent) research has explored what requirements of fairness may imply for accessibility the issue has received scant attention in the practice of transport planning and policy. In contrast, equity principles are fairly well established in the domains of health care, education and housing. By analyzing the equity principles in each of the latter domains, and assessing their possible relevance for the domain of transport, we want to contribute to the rapidly growing literature addressing equity concerns in the domain of transport. Methods The paper consists of two parts. In the first part, we conduct a thought experiment with the aim to provide a rough first estimate of the population at risk of what we call accessibility poverty. In the second part of the paper, we contrast the (lack of) equity principles in the transport domain with the type of equity principles underpinning three domains of government intervention: health care, education, and housing. We have selected these domains, because in contrast to transport, they are generally considered key anchors of developed welfare states; and in parallel to transport, they are each concerned with the delivery of a particular good to citizens. Results We estimate that in developed (Northern-European) countries about 9% to 11% of households is at risk of accessibility poverty. Of this group, 7% of all households is at risk because of a poor transport system (and sometimes also because of affordability problems), while another 2% to 4% is at risk of accessibility poverty because of disproportionally high motoring costs. We observe that most Western societies have well-established policies regarding the fair provision of health care, education and housing for all (income) groups. In contrast, decision-makers have not even started to define what fairness in the domain of transport could amount to. Conclusion Given the importance of mobility in modern societies, we argue that there is an urgent need for societal and policy debates about fairness and for subsequent translation of the outcomes of these debates into adequate principles, standards, and policies for the transport domain.