Exploring the focus and gaps in mobility justice-related surveys. A scoping review approach

Abstract

In mobility, justice is often assessed through distribution principles, focusing on large-scale accessibility analyses. However, these evaluations are normative and lack subjective insights. Surveys offer an opportunity to capture individual beliefs and extract subjective evaluations of justice, yet no standard approach exists for measuring mobility justice through surveys. This scoping review examines 56 studies that use surveys to understand perceptions of mobility justice, identifying key focus areas and highlighting gaps in the research. The analysis revealed that despite no year limitations on the search, all papers presented were undertaken since 2005, and more than half were published in the last five years. Our approach distinguishes between direct justice measures, where individuals are directly asked about the perceived fairness, and indirect justice measures, which ask individual opinions on assumed fair concepts. Findings show that minorities are underrepresented in mobility justice surveys, highlighting the need for additional focus on this target group. Moreover, surveys predominantly use indirect justice measures, revealing a gap in understanding specific mobility inequities perceived as just or unjust by disadvantaged groups. A conceptual framework for the future design of mobility surveys has been developed, aiming at advancing the development of a standardised measure of mobility justice.