{"title":"Transit Equity in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study of Six Ontario Transit Authorities","authors":"John B. Sutcliffe, Katrina Bahnam, Tartil Shaheen","doi":"10.1080/02722011.2023.2171303","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has created severe challenges for public transit systems. This article examines its impact on six Ontario transit systems. Using qualitative data from fourteen interviews with public transit officials and data from municipal documents and public announcements, the article examines whether measures introduced by the transit authorities addressed the issue of transit equity in the pandemic’s first year. The findings show that transit officials were aware of transit inequity—transit service cuts disproportionately affected the most vulnerable. Transit officials also raised issues relating to transit equity in their appeals to senior governments for more funding. It is, however, important not to overstate the prevalence of transit equity at this time. Transit officials and transit documents rarely used the term transit equity and there is limited evidence that considerations of procedural equity influenced decision-making in the period studied. Transit systems were forced to prioritize the maintenance of some level of reduced service during the pandemic with almost no capacity to introduce measures to advance transit equity.","PeriodicalId":43336,"journal":{"name":"American Review of Canadian Studies","volume":"53 1","pages":"22 - 41"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"American Review of Canadian Studies","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02722011.2023.2171303","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"AREA STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has created severe challenges for public transit systems. This article examines its impact on six Ontario transit systems. Using qualitative data from fourteen interviews with public transit officials and data from municipal documents and public announcements, the article examines whether measures introduced by the transit authorities addressed the issue of transit equity in the pandemic’s first year. The findings show that transit officials were aware of transit inequity—transit service cuts disproportionately affected the most vulnerable. Transit officials also raised issues relating to transit equity in their appeals to senior governments for more funding. It is, however, important not to overstate the prevalence of transit equity at this time. Transit officials and transit documents rarely used the term transit equity and there is limited evidence that considerations of procedural equity influenced decision-making in the period studied. Transit systems were forced to prioritize the maintenance of some level of reduced service during the pandemic with almost no capacity to introduce measures to advance transit equity.
期刊介绍:
American Nineteenth Century History is a peer-reviewed, transatlantic journal devoted to the history of the United States during the long nineteenth century. It welcomes contributions on themes and topics relating to America in this period: slavery, race and ethnicity, the Civil War and Reconstruction, military history, American nationalism, urban history, immigration and ethnicity, western history, the history of women, gender studies, African Americans and Native Americans, cultural studies and comparative pieces. In addition to articles based on original research, historiographical pieces, reassessments of historical controversies, and reappraisals of prominent events or individuals are welcome. Special issues devoted to a particular theme or topic will also be considered.