Advancing Equity in Transportation Planning
This project documents best practices for integrating and implementing equity considerations in transportation planning with the goal of providing actionable guidance to practitioners on how to apply equity to their daily work.
The design of our communities makes it easier for some people to access opportunities and harder for others. There is growing recognition of disparity within, Canadian municipalities and many are creating policies to guide their approach to equity. Researchers and consultants have heard from their city partners that staff are unsure how to apply overarching equity principles in their daily work.
There is a need for guidance on how to translate equity principles into action in specific city-planning domains, such as transportation. The field of transportation planning has been criticized for not prioritizing equity, due to disinvestment, displacement, and discriminatory design that negatively impacts marginalized communities.
METHODS
This project will document equity work underway in Canadian cities, by conducting:
- An environmental scan of equity policy documents in Canadian cities, (2022);
- Key informant interviews to capture lessons learned and best practices for the implementation of equity policy documents, specifically in the context of transportation planning (2023).
KNOWLEDGE OUTPUTS
This work aims to support practitioners with actionable guidance on how to apply equity to their daily work in a more cohesive, comprehensive, and practical way.
Our report, “Municipal Equity Policies: Takeaways for planners” summarizes results from the policy scan as were published in the Winter 2022 issue of the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP), Plan Canada.
Results from the key informant interviews are anticipated in Spring or Summer 2023.
PARTNERS
Project Lead: Tessa Williams
Timeline: May 2022- April 2023
Partners: REACH-Cities, INTERACT, LevelUp Planning Collaborative
