Clustering activity patterns and identifying homogeneous travel behaviour through trip chain sequences offer valuable insight for transportation planners and policymakers in addressing transport equity problems and travel demand management. This study explores how income and car-ownership levels determine mobility patterns and travellers' decisions. Unlike previous studies that investigated the travel mode and destinations separately, we designed a novel, aggregated form considering the trip purpose and associated transport mode use as a unit of our analysis. To mitigate the subjectivity of rule-based approaches for trip chain analysis, we employ a novel sequence clustering framework to extract homogeneous clusters of activity patterns. Our results reveal that income and car-ownership levels influence travellers' travel decisions and mobility patterns. Among low-income carless households, 37% of their daily trips include care activities where women more frequently than men play this traditional role in a household by either public transit or a car as a passenger. In the low-income car-owner subsample, females still use public transit for their work trips, whereas males more often use the available car to commute to work. Males of wealthy carless households integrate public transit and active transportation for their daily trips when they live in high-density and more accessible neighbourhoods. While our findings demonstrate the impact of car ownership, income, and built environment on trip-chaining behaviour, we recognise that achieving transport equity will require tailored transportation and land use policies and investments that address the specific needs and barriers faced by different household types, particularly the most vulnerable ones in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, accessibility levels, and affordability issues. Hence, we recommend that policymakers and planners take a more holistic approach to transportation planning that considers the interplay of these factors to ensure that transportation systems and services are accessible, affordable, and equitable for all.

Objective

Transportation is a critical health determinant, yet the last decade has witnessed rapid disinvestment across Canada (particularly in rural contexts) with negative health consequences. We sought to explore and describe the benefits and challenges faced in operating the first community-driven free-transportation scheme in Saskatchewan that emerged in response to widespread unavailability of public transportation due to budget cuts (austerity).

Methods

We conducted a mixed-methods community-based participatory research study involving 22 interviews with bus riders and service administrators. We also performed descriptive statistics and chi-squared analyses on bus rider data (data on 1185 trips routinely collected between July 2023 and December 2023) to explore sociodemographic characteristics and trip purposes of bus riders.

Results

All trips were completed by 616 community members using the free bus service between July 2023 and December 2023. Community members took an average of 5 trips (median = 2.0) with a maximum of 22 trips being taken by one community member (1.9% of all trips). Most trips were by women (53%), and older adults mostly used the free bus for medical purposes (22% of riders were older adults and 34% of these used the bus for medical reasons). Qualitatively, the bus service has increased access to care and promotes social participation and autonomy, especially for older adults. The service however faces some challenges, including funding disruptions and difficulty recruiting and retaining drivers.

Conclusion

Free inter-community transportation (i.e. transportation across cities and municipalities) promotes health equity and access. In contexts without access to public transportation, governments could support community-driven initiatives through increased funding.

Offering public transit services that meet the needs of older adults can contribute to their independence and well-being. Based on the Aging in Place survey conducted in March 2023 (N = 3,551), this research explores the barriers preventing older Canadians (65 and older) from using public transit in their area of residence. Specifically, we use factor and cluster analysis to identify non-transit user profiles (N = 491) based on survey participants’ perceptions of public transit and their stated willingness to use it in the next year. We find four distinct groups, including transit inclined, transit is a last resort, transit is not for now, and transit averse. Each group shows variation in the extent to which they are willing to use public transit in the future. To add nuances to our segmentation findings, we conduct a thematic analysis of an open-ended question pertaining to barriers to using public transit in each region. Access to public transit, frequency, travel time, reliability, safety, infrastructure, and convenience are defined as areas for potential improvement, though the prevalence of the concerns did vary between the non-user profiles. The findings from this research can be of interest to decision-makers and public transit agencies as accounting for the heterogeneity of non-transit users can help in directing strategies promoting public transit adoption among older adults in the future.

Decades of research indicate that accessibility plays a fundamental role in the urban systems of cities by influencing land markets and household location choices. Accessibility is also often positioned as a policy tool in enhancing the well-being of disadvantaged population groups. Considered together, recent research into transportation equity underscores the need to critically investigate the distribution of accessibility with their affordability impacts. To better understand this dynamic, this research assesses variability in the relationship between employment access and house prices within different neighbourhood types in Metro Vancouver. We first calculate network accessibility to employment opportunities. Next, to integrate equity, we use sociodemographic indicators from census data to establish a typology of four neighbourhoods: Affluent, Stable Middle-class, At-Risk Middle-class and Economically-disadvantaged. Finally, using real estate data, we employ spatial econometric models to estimate differences in the capitalization of accessibility in residential property prices across these neighbourhood types. Results suggest that the value of transit access does differ by neighbourhood type in Metro Vancouver. While more affluent neighbourhoods exhibit the highest marginal willingness to pay for accessibility, predicted prices are highest in disadvantaged neighbourhoods due to their higher absolute levels of access. The research offers new insight into how property price effects vary according to different accessibility and sociodemographic contexts, and highlights important implications for both policy and future research.

Despite several decades of research, the relationship between transit accessibility and land values remains unclear. In practice, most research has focused on simple measures of proximity that, while easy to understand, fail to capture the potential for interaction using the transit network. Through the example of the King Street Transit Priority Corridor project, this research examines how transit accessibility, and changes in access over time that result from streetcar service upgrades, are capitalized into condominium prices in Toronto, Canada. Methodological and applied contributions include calculating streetcar travel time differences using disaggregate vehicle tracking data, calculating transit accessibility using a gravity-based measure with a calibrated impedance function, accounting for variations in accessibility over the course of a day as well as changes over time, incorporating measures of access to local amenities, transforming 2D transaction information to a 3D format, and specifying 4D spatio-temporal weights. Longitudinal model results indicate that transit accessibility is a significant determinant of condominium prices. While the service upgrades did not dramatically increase accessibility levels and the implicit value of accessibility did not change over time, panel model results find that condominium property prices appreciated by about 2.7% more on average in the King Street streetcar corridor relative to the Sheppard subway control after the introduction of the priority corridor pilot. This result suggests the corridor on the whole may have became more attractive relative to Sheppard in the pilot phase.

Crises are an opportunity to learn, and transportation is no exception. The dramatic reduction in mobility levels during COVID-19, the slow recovery of transit ridership and new trends such as remote working have raised essential questions for the future of public transport. Our work focuses on transit rider segmentation, understanding the heterogeneity of users based on their behaviour before, during, and coming out of the pandemic, and what that means for the economic and social sustainability of transit systems. We asked ourselves two main questions: (i) will people continue riding transit after COVID-19? and (ii) what are riders’ reasons behind increasing, maintaining, or decreasing public transport use? Using a two-wave survey conducted in 2020 and 2021, we assessed the motives behind future public transport use in two Canadian cities (Toronto and Vancouver). We used quantitative and qualitative methods, particularly latent class cluster analysis (LCCA), text mining, and qualitative content analysis. We identified six transit riders’ profiles, ranging from those experiencing transport poverty who rely on public transport to those more resourced users who will ride less since they can choose alternatives such as remote work, private modes, or active travel. We discuss the policy and practice implications of these results, focusing on what public transport decision-makers should prioritize to benefit disadvantaged groups and recover ridership.

Marginalized communities usually experience inadequate public transport services in North America. Within these communities, buses play a vital role in everyday activity participation. Unfortunately, transport services that may advance equity by improving coverage and service for disadvantaged population groups and areas are often overlooked in transit planning since they usually underperform in ridership-based metrics. To address this problem, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) introduced an equity service policy in 2019 to enhance bus services in vulnerable neighbourhoods known as Neighbourhood Improvement Areas (NIAs). This policy involves augmenting observed ridership counts for buses serving NIAs to improve or protect services for these communities. Although this proposed measure can improve bus services in NIAs, its current form might exclude other equity-deserving riders (EDRs) living outside NIAs, increasing their accessibility barriers. Our study uses quantitative and spatial analytical methods to better understand the equity impacts of this service policy change. We propose moving from the aggregate neighbourhood-based approach using NIAs to a more comprehensive and disaggregated person-based approach. First, we create an alternate method that identifies EDRs at the bus stop level using a fusion of census and travel survey data. We then explore the differences in augmented ridership levels created by the two approaches and evaluate whether the augmented ridership levels are likely to result in meaningful service changes using existing TTC service standards. We found that 2 out of 3 transit riders in Toronto are equity-deserving, with 72% residing outside NIAs. Our approach reveals increased ridership on routes with many EDRs, which receive minimal augmentation under the NIA-based method. Conversely, if all riders in NIAs are considered EDRs, our approach shows a 19% ridership overestimation equivalent to 35,245 users. Based on these results, we recommend creating a dedicated equity tool with an individual-centric focus, identifying areas with low transit service and high EDR percentages. This tool could then be integrated as an equity perspective into annual bus service planning.

Aim

To identify predictors of transportation-related barriers to healthcare access in a North American suburb.

Subject and methods

Data from the 2022 Scarborough Survey were used, comprising n = 528 adults living in Scarborough, which is a subu<rb of Toronto, Canada, recruited through iterative sampling. Log binomial regression models identified demographic, socioeconomic, health and transportation predictors of a composite of: (1) delaying a primary care appointment, (2) missing a primary care appointment or (3) postponing or declining a vaccination due to transportation issues.

Results

Of the sampled individuals, 34.5% experienced the outcome. In the multivariable model, younger age (RR = 3.03), disability (RR = 2.60), poor mental health (RR = 1.70) and reliance on public transit (RR = 2.09) were associated with greater risk of experiencing the outcome. Full-time employment, reliance on active travel and reliance on others for transportation were specifically associated with greater risk of experiencing a transportation-related barrier to vaccination.

Conclusion

In suburban areas such as Scarborough, transportation-related barriers to healthcare access have a disproportionate impact on groups defined by important demographic, health and transportation-related characteristics. These results corroborate that transportation is an important determinant of health in suburban areas, the absence of which may exacerbate existing inequities among the most vulnerable individuals in a given population.

Transport-related social exclusion describes how a lack of transportation resources hinders participation in society. Time poverty refers to situations in which work and household commitments deprive people of time for other meaningful or necessary activities. Research integrating both concepts is limited, despite evidence that excessive daily travel times can lead to transport-related time poverty. We propose a conceptual framework to bridge existing time use and transport-related social exclusion frameworks to understand transportation’s contribution to time poverty. We apply our framework to the Canadian General Social Survey (GSS)’s time use module by conducting a latent class cluster analysis (LCCA) using individual characteristics, transportation and urban form features, and time poverty standards. Utilizing a data-driven approach, we propose thresholds to define when an individual is at risk of time poverty and when they can be considered time-poor. Similarly, we define these thresholds for transport-related time poverty based on existing literature. Our findings show that one in five Canadians over 24 years old can be classified as time poor, 23 % experience transport-related time poverty and 5 % experience both general and transport-related time poverty. We found ten profiles, which we analyzed into three subgroups: (i) high time poverty and medium rates of transport-related time poverty, (ii) low time poverty and medium to high incidence of transport-related time poverty, and (iii) very low time poverty and transport-related time poverty. From the first subgroup, four profiles display the highest proportions of time poverty (61 % and 70 %), as well as moderated levels of transport-related time poverty (22 % to 32 %). More than 450,000 socially disadvantaged Canadians, mainly characterized by women single parents with medium to low incomes, were categorized into two clusters, where 290,000 experience time poverty, 123,000 transport-related time poverty, and 70,000 both simultaneously. Building on these findings, we discussed the potential impact of different transport and land use policies to alleviate transport-related time poverty as well as avenues for future research.

Unrealized travel and its associated activity participation is included in many overlapping concepts in the literature—unmet need, latent demand, suppressed travel, and forgone travel. In this scoping review, we focus on suppressed travel, which we define as travel, and associated activity participation, that is unrealized due to transportation-related social exclusion and associated mobility barriers. We review how researchers have measured suppressed travel using surveys, identifying which populations are studied (who), which destinations are considered (where), how questions are structured (how), which barriers are identified as causes of suppressed travel (why), and to what extent questions address suppressed desires and mobility horizons (what). We also assess study quality. We conducted a search using sets of keywords relating to equity, transportation, and surveys. We identified 3,522 unique abstracts from Web of Science and Scopus published since the year 2000. Two undergraduate reviewers independently screened the abstracts with author oversight. The authors conducted full-text reviews of 533 remaining studies. Of these, 158 survived to data extraction, and 19 of those could ultimately be included in this analysis. We find strong evidence of travel suppression among older adults and people with disabilities. Insufficient transit service and dependency on others for rides are identified as primary causes. Among the general population, unrealized travel is greater for leisure and eating out trips, while populations experiencing TRSE face travel suppression for work, education, and other essential trips. We identify gaps in populations and causes studied and conclude with recommendations on how to advance knowledge in this area.