Information Technology and Transportation Equality
The annals of American urbanism contain more than a few examples where transportation has reinforced existing divisions or been used to further stratify communities along race and class lines. This history has had a profound and negative impact on the shape of our cities—so much so that transportation related injustices became both a symbol and a catalyst of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s.
We’re still far from a moment when access to transportation is seen as a fundamental right and there have both been significant gains and losses made on this front over the last several decades. The rise of car-centric transport and suburbanization—in some places a response to integration—moved us further from the dream of universally accessible communities. More recently we have seen a return to the city center and a reinvestment in transit infrastructure. It remains, however, an open question whether this renaissance can help address inequalities or only further exacerbate them.
Information technology presents new opportunities and challenges for improving transportation access. Web-based mapping solutions and the proliferation of mobile applications allow us to rethink the very nature of our transportation infrastructure. All of a sudden highways and the single-occupancy vehicles that travel them become platforms for ad hoc, point-to-point transit networks; interactive trip planning tools simplify and advertise traditional fixed-route transit systems; and, information networks themselves allow us to reconsider how we connect with one another and define the boundaries of our communities.
These advances are without question positive changes. They help reduce complexity and expand the visibility of transportation options. They also play a role in defining who uses various forms of transportation—particularly, increasing the desirability of shared transit options among users that might otherwise choose a different means.
At the same time, however, it is worth considering the consequences of our design choices. Just as sprawling pedestrian unfriendly streets limit suburban access to those that can afford cars, transportation options that depend upon Internet access, smart phones or even literacy, can present significant challenges for certain populations. Riders that might otherwise rely on transit for their primary means of mobility may not have the luxury of “choosing” the latest mobile-enabled transportation platform ether because of price or familiarity with technology. Without thoughtful design we run the risk of adding new tiers to an already exclusionary hierarchy of transportation options.
As we work to design the future of transportation it’s useful to reflect on its history of inequality and to recognize the universal importance of mobility. In the conversations to come at Transportation Camp and within the burgeoning community of transit hackers let’s look for ways to leverage new technology while at the same time building a more accessible and equitable transportation system. The first step is remembering that the challenges we face are more than technical.
Update: An example! Check out John Keefe’s experiments with the B63 bus data. A colleague presented him with the challenge of making an interface that her mom would use—smart phones and texting are ok for the Twitter generation but they weren’t going to work for her mom. However, a traditional voice telephone interface might.
As a first attempt John set up a phone number she could call that only provided the arrival information for her specific stop (he’s since updated it to allow callers to enter a stop number). It only took a few hours to build this new interface but it opened up access to a whole new group of potential users.
