University of Amsterdam
Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences Graduate School of Social Sciences
MSc Urban and Regional Planning Master Thesis Project
Examining the Degree of Incorporation of
Transportation Justice in Municipal Policy in Three
Progressive Western Cities
Kylie Burk 11187123 krburk94@gmail.com
11 June 2018
“A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It’s where the rich use public transportation.” — Enrique Peñalosa, former mayor of Bogota
Abstract
In recent years, the notion of transport justice has been gaining prominence in the academic literature. It is, however, questionable whether this notion, and its related components, has affected municipal transport policy. To explore this, I investigated three progressive cities in the Western world for evidence of science-policy transfer with the assumption that these cases would be most likely to adopt transport-justice strategies from academia. Policy documents were analyzed and expert interviews were conducted to this end. The study found that all three cities are implementing most of the tenets of transportation justice and that conceptual transfer is occurring to a certain extent, but in areas that were expected.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express gratitude towards my thesis advisor, Dr. David Evers, with input from Dr. Marco te Brommelstroet, and would also like to extend further gratitude for my second reader, Dr. Tuna Tasan-Kok, for showing interest in my research. Their feedback and expertise have been very valuable and helpful. I would also like to express my sincerest gratitude to my interviewees for their invaluable input in my research, specifically Remine Alberts (Amsterdam), Thomas Koorn (Amsterdam), Jan-Bert Vroege (Amsterdam), Steffen Rasmussen (Copenhagen), Per Hansen (Copenhagen), Anne Fritzler (San Francisco), and Sarah Jones (San Francisco). I have had an amazing time in Amsterdam and learning about how other cities view transportation and learning from the policy makers in their respective cities. I hope to be able to continue to learn about how transportation justice has made its way into policy and its further effects.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ………..………..5 2. Theoretical Framework ………....6 2.1 Literature Review ………...6 2.1.1 Transportation Justice ………..…7 2.1.2 Capabilities Approach ………..…9 2.1.3 Policy Making ……….….10 2.2 Conceptual Framework ………...11 3. Methodology ………...12 3.1 Problem Statement ………....12 3.2 Research Questions ………...12 3.3 Research Design ………...12 3.3.1 Interview Questions ……….…...16 3.3.2 Interviewees ………..………..…16 4. Results ……….…..17 4.1 Amsterdam ………...…………...17 4.2 Copenhagen ………...22 4.3 San Francisco ……….…...26 4.4 Correlation Comparison ……….…...30 4.5 Causality Comparison ……….…..31 5. Conclusion ………...32 5.1 Reflections ……….…….……34 5.2 References ……….……36 5.3 Appendix ……….……38List of Figures and Tables
Figure 1. Snapshot of Coding Model in ITS Better Action Plan ………..14Figure 2. Cause and Effect Relationship ………....15
Figure 3. Location of Amsterdam ……….17
Figure 4. Maatregelen en projecten in 2017 in Amsterdam op hoofdlijnen ………...19
Figure 5. Location of Copenhagen ………...22
Figure 6. Location of San Francisco ……….26
Table 1. Interviewees and Their Information ………..….16
Table 2. City Rankings Based on Transportation Justice Tenets ……….30
1. Introduction
In some cities people can get around regardless of their socioeconomic status, while in others disadvantaged groups have little mobility and end up having to invest relatively more time and money to reach their jobs, schools, shops, or healthcare facilities. This phenomenon is debated in the academic literature as transportation justice and applying the principles of justice to urban transportation in a plethora of contexts. This idea of transportation justice has been gaining traction in the
academic community and advocacy groups, but to the extent in the policy realm is unknown. What comprises transportation justice is also a contested subject, as most subjects relating to a form of equity tend to be, since it can vary based on
circumstances and the individuals or groups involved. Karel Martens said it well when discussing transportation justice stating that, achieving transport justice with its sometimes broad definition and the inevitably political component of transportation planning, leads to the system having varying effects on different individuals or
groups of people (Martens, 2017, 5). Scholars, however, have been producing many opinions on how to increase fairness, accessibility, and a greater measure of justice to transportation planning.
Individual mobility is a vital component and condition for the utilization and fabrication of goods and services that have been deemed necessary in modern societies (Hananel & Berechman, 2016, 79). Accessibility and maintaining all parts of a city to have viable mobility options is key to maintaining a healthy city. It is also important to look at the way urban areas are built as well as the design, especially for land use and transportation, to examine the full scope of impact on the
environment, health, and social equity components rather than to just view the issues on the surface as having a singular source (Mercier, 2009, 149). But also, important to note that “there is no clear definition, in practice or theory, of what constitutes a fair distribution of benefits from transportation investments; and that no standards, goals, or performance measures exist, against which agencies can measure progress or success in the distribution of transportation benefits” (Martens et al., 2012, 684). Additionally, in transportation planning practice the goals may not always be stated, merely implied, but not in the clearest fashion, or not based on a “well-developed moral argument” (Martens et al, 2012, 684).
The concept of transportation deserts, or areas underserved by modes of
transportation, has been increasing in recent years (Jiao & Dillivan, 2013, 23). It largely addresses the limiting or compromising of the options of transportation, specifically related to transportation modes which have been greatly affected by urban sprawl (Jiao & Dillivan, 2013, 24). Eliminating the concept of transportation deserts is a key component to moving towards a more just city overall.
Transportation deserts can actually reinforce inequality (Jiao & Dillivan, 2013, 25). Cities maintain a crucial part in taking steps to create and maintain well-balanced transit systems in all the areas of the city to help curb inequality. Overall looking beyond the necessity for car ownership to conduct life, alternatives to car
2. Theoretical Framework
2.1 Literature Review
Sustainable practices and the interest in them in transportation planning is steadily rising, which results in a pressure to implement more equitable and just practices (Beiler & Mohammed, 2016, 285), especially in plans and policies cities produce that can have lasting effects. There is currently no universal method for evaluating
transportation justice and what constitutes it (Beiler & Mohammed, 2016, 286), leaving it largely open to interpretation and leaving a metric for it very open-ended. Additionally, there is a lack of evaluation of the filtering of transportation justice into policy from the academic debate.
In the field of transportation planning, adopting a justice-centric approach can imply that a large gap exists between the best and worst-off areas or groups in society in terms of access in a city (Martens et al., 2012, 685). As a city tries to address issues of inequality, transportation is a key aspect, but land-use, environment, and health as well as a larger achievement of equity all need to be taken into consideration to see a more just system realized (Mercier, 2009, 148). Especially as transportation can only reach people in the design of the greater city as a whole, so less density can make it harder to incorporate walking, cycling, and public transit into a coherent system that helps people achieve their daily goals within the city (Mercier, 2009, 148).
The rising rate of the global population that lives in urban areas, especially in the decades to come, just exacerbates the problem that inequality can bring in
transportation and land-use (Mercier, 2009, 145). The majority of cities in the world put forth a considerable share of their urban infrastructure to cars and personal vehicles as a whole (Gössling, 2016, 2), but confronting and developing sustainable urban planning has become a universal subject in all global urban regions (Mercier, 2009, 145). This somewhat staunch dependency on automobility has had varying affects on the system as a whole, and not the most just of a transportation model for the city. This system was greatly affected by the ‘modernization’ of our recent
century that had lead to a decline in non-motorized transport, especially in North America (Gössling, 2016, 2). The land use orientation with regards to motorization highlights the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions and the effects that the emissions have on the environment and the people living in that environment to have the potential to create many more issues (Mercier, 2009, 148). This signals the interdependency and complexity of urban issues and infrastructure in our lives. Western society has been inextricably linked with the ideals and values of independence, freedom, adventure and even autonomy, which has continued to reinforce the sometimes isolating car-dependent culture (Martens et al., 2012, 686). This viewpoint was strengthened by a dependency on oil that crazed the world, especially in North America where just five percent of the global population resides yet they consume forty percent of the global transportation energy, that largely caused urban transportation to avoid being viewed as a key equity and social justice issue (Mercier, 2009, 146). In practice this presents as the historically more closely integrated and dense urban designs of pre-20th century that were unraveling and that “the urban environment has ‘unbundled’ territorialities of home, work business and
leisure” creating more diverse environments and a dramatically increased need for transportation and well-designed transportation networks (Martens et al., 2012, 686). The ways of viewing an urban area’s transportation sector was largely looked at singularly, regarding increasing supply, rather than discussing ways to change or affect demand (Mercier, 2009, 146). The effects of these decisions can still be viewed today in the dependency on motorized, and often individual, transportation that can be a headache for some regions of the world.
2.1.1 Transportation Justice
Transportation justice alludes to an attainment of more equality and the nullification of injustices (Martens et al., 2012, 693; Gössling, 2016, 2). This is just a brief introduction to the very foundational work of Karel Martens to the field of
transportation justice. A large portion of examining fair and, therefore, more just practices in transportation planning concerns itself with accessibility, which is a key term in transport justice. (Martens, 2017, 150). Accessibility is defined as follows: “the level of accessibility experienced by a person is determined by the spatial distribution of activities, by the available transportation systems, and by a person’s ability to overcome spatial separation” (Martens, 2017, 150). This can then be
applied to the resources available in a person’s life which vary widely by person and by time (Martens, 2017, 150). The examination of accessibility patterns should be rooted in multiple measures of accessibility and account for differences between people (Martens, 2017, 153) He further states that “simple measures of accessibility may well be adequate to identify population groups that are entitles to accessibility improvements” (Martens, 2017, 153). Martens further underscores that the metrics used in examining accessibility poverty and fairness are synonymous in regard to one another (2017, 158).
A large component of working towards a more fair transport system, which signals a more just transport system, is “to address the accessibility shortfalls experienced by the population groups most entitled to accessibility improvements” (Martens, 2017, 164). The various reasons that can contribute to a lower level of accessibility can be hard to address as it may concern peoples scattered all over a city or numerous other reasons, and these shortfalls can make it difficult to generate solutions for addressing these matters (Martens, 2017, 165). Martens argues that many key factors in an individual’s life and pertaining to the level of justice in their life is also their income level, as it is the best indicator for the transport mode availability for a person (2017, 187), and providing equitable transportation options across
socioeconomic status spectrum is key in transportation justice. It is further stated that those of a lower socioeconomic status are in more of a position to encounter
“accessibility shortfalls” in their lives (Martens, 2017, 188). Martens et al. additionally expresses that space is a key indicator of access, stating that the residence in a city very strongly impacts their accessibility opportunities as well as the mode in which a person can maintain for their primary transportation, further shaping their
issues/questions, social justice issues, and health (Mercier, 2009, 147). To examine this question of access from a different angle, it could even be argued that not every individual needs the same level of accessibility to conduct their lives and participate in urban society (Martens et al., 2012, 688). This can become extremely problematic when discussing how to apply this viewpoint within the transportation sector
(Martens et al., 2012, 688), as it can be hard to articulate a direction to move forward in the planning realm. Martens et al. offers a suggestion of the continuing motivation to be focusing on the “needs of collectives” currently and in the future to maintain a positively functioning urban transportation infrastructure (2012, 688). The conclusion that Martens et al. prescribes to, is that differentiation in accessibility has the
potential to be labeled acceptable as long as a “basic level of access is guaranteed,” with the “basic level” being defined as being able to sufficiently access the areas and locations that are key to their life opportunities (2012, 688). These locations are areas such as “employment centers, health services, education, recreational facilities, as well as family and friends” (Martens et al., 2012, 688).
Urban transport systems have further been expanded upon and discussed in conjunction with social justice theory (Gössling, 2016, 2), therefore, makes that component relevant to transportation justice. Social justice in transportation is expressed as the “the fairness in the physical distribution of goods, accessibility for people, affordability of all types of services and distribution of other gains” (Gössling, 2016, 2). Fainstein further compounds on the social justice component by arguing that a model just city is one “in which public investment and regulation would produce equitable outcomes rather than support those already well off” (2010, 3). Feinstein’s statement relays the notion that an increasing number of scholars have broadly labeled cities as inherently being socially unjust (Gössling, 2016, 2). Within this context of justice, it is even argued in the academic debate that even though evidence exists of transportation changes in many regions, there is a need to place urban transportation justice into the context of a “sustainable mobility paradigm” (Gössling, 2016, 2).
Gössling’s central context for his academic arguments is that there is a paradox between the political aspirations and goals of sustainable transport, being more transportation just, and the realities of the current urban infrastructure that favors the car (2016, 1). This context places great importance on achieving transportation justice through the examination and use of modal options present in a city with determining transportation justice. In terms of justice, a distinction is present
between what can be described as more sustainable modes of transit, such as public transit, walking, and cycling, and less sustainable modes such as an automobile and motorcycle (Gössling, 2016, 3). This sets the frame of reference for transport justice as a whole, “which recognizes these transport-specific contributions, while
simultaneously considering the unequal distribution of ‘burdens’ associated with transport choices for other traffic participants, residents, or society more generally” (Gössling, 2016, 3).
Transportation justice can take on many facets, but many lie within the framework of analyzing the negative factors, or outcomes, such as exposure, space, and time (Gössling, 2016, 3). Exposure encompasses “accident risks, distress, noise, pollutants, smell, and climate change” (Gössling, 2016, 3). Accident risks are disproportionally involving pedestrians and cyclists even though they are a
significantly smaller travel group as a whole in most cities (Gössling, 2016, 3). Exposure to pollutants is another key problem to address as the awareness of injustice is building and becoming more known due to health problems through sedentary action and transportation congestion (Gössling, 2016, 6). It remains that motorized transit is still the main choice when discussing transportation politics (Gössling, 2016, 6).
Building on this disproportionate value, it is also prevalent in the use of space allocation in cities as more sustainable transportation methods, such as cycling and walking, use considerably less space, yet the area allocated to that mode “may often be often be smaller than their share in traffic” (Gössling, 2016, 5). Space
encompasses the “distribution of and access to, and infrastructure provisions” (Gössling, 2016, 3), and it also further be argued that automobiles consume a significantly greater amount of space than other transportation modes (Gössling, 2016, 5). At the expense of public transportation and other sustainable methods, roads were expanded to focus again more on the motorized transportation
component (Hananel & Berechman, 2016, 80). Space can become a contentious matter as transportation infrastructure consumes a vast share of urban space but indeed varies greatly according to the city (Gössling, 2016, 5).
Time encompasses a key aspect in the planning of traffic, and time that is “spent travelling is generally considered a loss, and transport planners have sought to reduce travel time as a cost to traffic participants” (Gössling, 2016, 5). This view of seeing time as cost in regard to traveling may only be a phenomenon with cars, as cyclists may choose, of their own volition, to avoid busier stretches of roads or those areas dominated by cars for choosing to value other factors as greater than travel time, such as decreasing or avoiding air and noise pollution to for a better view (Gössling, 2016, 5). Traffic priorities are an important concept in transportation policy that also directly addresses travel time, and research has shown that increasing cycling speeds yields a higher return than increasing vehicle speeds (Gössling, 2016, 5).
The goal of more justice and equity present in cities between inhabitants is greatly entangled with many factors. It presents itself as possibly most effective when looking at the issues as combined and treating them as such, for example investing in quality transit is a good start but land use and existing infrastructure also play a large role in achieving that goal (Mercier, 2009, 160). A major roadblock for cities is their interest in fostering sustainable transportation infrastructure, yet instead of promoting cycling infrastructure, cars are always prioritized in practically every city in the world, with the exception of the green waves project in Copenhagen and a few other cities (Gössling, 2016, 5). A central component to attaining a more sustainable mobility system is the devaluation of car-centric policies (Gössling, 2016, 7).
2.1.2 Capabilities Approach
transportation has touched on social justice and equity but largely remains in the narrow terms of decision-making (Hananel & Berechman, 2016, 78). When discussing the idea of justice, and more specifically transportation justice, many theories of justice can be applied, such as “utilitarianism, libertarianism, intuitionism, Rawls’ egalitarianism, and Capability Approaches” (Pereira, Schwanen, & Banister, 2017, 171).
The capabilities approach looks to focus on “human capabilities as the relevant subject of justice principles and the building block underlying models of just distribution” (Hananel & Berechman, 2016, 79). Two concepts that are key to the capabilities approach are functions and capabilities, which incorporate all the goods, services, etc. that an individual would like to consume and illustrates the real
combinations of functions that can be achieved and accomplished by an individual, respectively (Hananel & Berechman, 2016, 79). The expansion of the capabilities approach looks at functions and capabilities and combines many concepts, such as life, health, integrity, emotions, practical reason, affiliation, and play among others, together under a single justice framework with a goal of enabling all citizens in a society to have equal levels of freedom and realization of their full potential (Hananel & Berechman, 2016, 79). The approach combines multiple concepts such as
freedom, welfare, and equity into a single framework with the main criterion of justice being the accessibility to the basic items and services required to empower all
citizens in a society to have an equitable measure of freedom that will allow the realization of their full potential (Hananel & Berechman, 2016, 79). This approach differs as opposed to looking predominately at a person’s resources and instead to their capabilities (Ryan et al., 2015, 106). The overall approach is based mainly on equity (Ryan et al., 2015, 106).
2.1.3 Policy Making
Policy making has a foundation rooted in the notion that it ought to be guided from research on policy (Sager, 2007, 270). This policy research can be difficult to rely on as the cycle of policy can move more rapidly than the time it takes for adequate research, which leads directly to the question of “how research evidence is translated into government policy?” (Sager, 2007, 270). The process of policy making can be further complicated by the overwhelming amount of literature on "social aspects of transport systems”, yet actual research due to the level of complexity and possible uncertainty make it underutilized by policy makers
(Miciukiewicz & Vigar, 2012, 1946). Miciukiewicz & Vigar further argue that there is no lacking present in terms of tools but rather a failure of utilizing the tools and knowledge properly in many cases further complicates things (2012, 1946). Therefore, many directions chosen in transport policy making follow a
“’commonsense’ assumptions underpinning economic modelling and technological development,” rather than focusing on new approaches of examining the plethora of urban contexts to create new solutions (Miciukiewicz & Vigar, 2012, 1946).
When examining policy transfer in any situation, it is key to clearly state what and whose perspective is being utilized as a lens (Timms, 2011, 513). Timms also lists seven key questions that address the various components of policy transfer
concerning the knowledge being transferred, why the actors are engaging in policy transfer, the key actors, from where the lessons are being drawn, the various
degrees of transfer present, restrictions in the transfer process, and if the transfer relates more to policy “success” or “failure” (Timms, 2011, 513). These aspects of policy transfer are used as qualifiers to thoroughly examine the multiple categories also present with regards to policy transfer like “policy goals, policy content, policy instruments, policy programs, institutions, ideologies, ideas and attitudes and negative lessons” (Timms, 2011, 515).
2.2 Conceptual Framework
Having built upon the literature review and the problem statement, the central theme to my thesis is how the components of transportation justice are present in policy, specifically in progressive Western cities. The key dependent variable is the policy documents themselves as a main unit of analysis. The “SFMTA Strategic Plan from Fiscal Year 2013- 2018” was used for the city of San Francisco, California. “The Better Mobility in Copenhagen ITS Action Plan 2015-2016” was used for
Copenhagen, Denmark. The “Uitvoeringsprogramma Verkeer & Vervoer 2017” was used for Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The Uitvoeringsprogramma Verkeer & Vervoer 2017 was translated into English using a computer generated program to compare all three documents in English.
This analysis examined the level of conceptual transfer from the academic debate surrounding transportation justice and the ways in which the academic debate presents itself into transportation policy. The operationalization of this research concerns the identification of other independent variables, such as the current academic debate in the form of transportation justice literature, the various modal projects conducted in the transportation policy, limiting accident risk, current
transportation infrastructure and land use goals, current budget for the transportation sector, the political climate in the respective cities, personal and group mobility, and exposure risks in each city with regards to the transportation sector. Taking into consideration all the vast views on what actually defines transportation justice, it can best be described as an all-encompassing definition by attaining more equitable access for all inhabitants in an urban area to the transportation they need to improve or maintain a better quality of life.
3. Methodology
3.1 Problem Statement
Cities are working hard to combat issues of accessibility for all forms of
transportation and people living in the city. The notion of viable mobility options for everyone to conduct their lives unhindered has not yet to be fully realized, and may never, but cities are working towards that where they can. Seeking transportation justice is an avenue that many cities are exploring, but the directions are not always clear. Transportation justice can take on many forms and have many qualifying factors while being a trending topic in the academic debate. However, it is unclear if that academic debate is presenting itself into policy in cities. The discussion of conceptual transfer is also rarely discussed in regard to transportation justice.
3.2 Research Question
The main objective of this research is to answer the following question:
To what extent have the tenets of transport justice been incorporated into the transport policies of progressive, Western cities?
The research sub-questions to achieve the aim of this research question are as follows:
1. How is transportation justice defined and what are its constituent parts in the academic debate?
2. To what extent do the transportation justice key concepts reoccur in the transport policies of Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and San Francisco? 3. Are the transportation policies in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and San
Francisco linked to the larger academic debate on transportation justice? 4. What is the conceptual transfer from the academic debate to the
transportation policies as observed by experts and practitioners/officials?
3.3 Research Design
The research design for this study follows a testing method. The qualitative design for this comparative case study method using Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and San Francisco is to allow for the three-way comparison produced for more meaningful results through three case studies instead of one. A generalization made in this research design is that the gap will be the smallest between the academic debate and transportation policy in these three cities. These cities implement an array of modal options and expansive public transit networks with the ability to walk to many places in their high density layouts. Another generalization and assumption followed was that these cities (Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and San Francisco) have the most affinity with the academic debate and are some of the best cities in following
transportation justice tenets in the current global context. This case selection provided the most meaningful insight into the transfer of transportation justice into policy as the cities have publicly acknowledged the academic debate of
transportation justice, therefore, eliminating a potential problem of cities not being familiar with the concept of transportation justice. These case studies were analyzed by means of a discourse analysis that determined if elements of transport justice
were being translated into transportation policy. The dependent variable is policy documents and the independent variables are the current academic debate
surrounding transportation justice, the political climate of the case study cities, the current transportation infrastructure and land use, various modal option projects (pedestrian, cycling, public transit, automobility), travel times, the budget for the transportation sector, exposure risks, and the data through interviews with professionals in transportation planning in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and San Francisco.
The first phase and step in laying the foundation was to review all current academic literature with transportation justice to gain a clear understanding and framework for the tenets of transportation justice. The main literature on transportation justice was examined further to gain a depth of understanding, along with a framework to define transport justice and gain the most complete literary and academic context that is currently available. This careful analysis of the transportation justice literature
produced indicators, or the independent variables, separating the key compositional components of transportation justice into various categories to gain understanding of the pieces, that together, define transportation justice. The indicators being
considered to highlight that transfer has taken place for the analysis are: similar language and concepts being repeated from the literature in the policy, the
motivation behind a certain policy such as justice or a fairness component, and the target demographic the policy is aiming, or aimed, to reach. This phase gathered the data needed to answer subquestion one through the comprehensive analysis of transportation justice literature and the academic debate and for providing the metric used to analyze the policy documents used in subquestions two and three.
The second phase was to collect transportation policy documents from the three cities used for the case studies: Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and San Francisco. These documents were analyzed by using a metric establish by the author to find policies pertaining to transportation justice and attributes relating to justice as well as key words and concepts that align with the tenets of transportation justice. The policy documents from each city were highlighted based on the tenets of the metric that was developed. In total there were twelve different tenets of transportation justice that were deemed essential to conduct the analysis and colors were chosen to represent each tenet to highlight the tenets in the policy documents. The colors were varied but some had to repeat due a constraint on the number of different colors to my disposal. An example of a page that followed this model is below in Figure 1. These highlighted sections were what was deemed as important and most
components of the documents were highlighted in some category or another. The information gathered from the policy documents was combined into an Excel sheet to make comparisons against the cities’ policy directions easier and more concise. The Excel sheet can be found in the Appendix. The policy document for Amsterdam was in Dutch and a computer generated translation was produced for the document to be English. The data collected from this phase contributed to the answering of subquestions two and three.
Figure 1. Snapshot of Coding Model in ITS Better Action Plan. Created by author from screenshot of
page 9 of ITS Better Action Plan from Copenhagen with highlighted coding of tenets.
The third phase involved interviewing policy officials and transportation planners in the three case study cities. These interviews provided insight into the level of influence that transportation justice had in their jobs, if at all, and to what extent the academic debate had helped influence that conceptual transfer. Officials were further questioned if the resulting policy they consulted on just coincided with the ideas of transportation justice rather than being a foundational element and the subsequent cause of the policy. The resulting information from the interviews will be placed against the metric developed for the policy document analysis to further explore the connection that the academic debate components or tenets have in the official’s work. The data from this phase helped to answer subquestions three and four through the interviews and the notes from the interviews, which can be found in an Excel sheet in the Appendix section. A minimum of two interviews per city were required to get a picture of the city, with three interviews being the target to allow a broader perspective to explore if a pattern emerged in motivations and resulting
policy. Two interviews were conducted with officials from Copenhagen and San Francisco and three interviews were conducted with Amsterdam officials.
Ultimately, the relationship explored is the cause and effect relationship between transportation justice tenets and the creation of policy in the case study cities following those ideals as illustrated in Figure 2 below. The policy documents were obtained through thorough searches of the municipal websites for main
transportation policy documents for each city in produced in recent years.
Figure 2. Cause and Effect Relationship. Created by author.
An important component of the research is the conducting of expert interviews in each of the cities, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and San Francisco, to see the officials’ perceptions of the transportation policies and the underlying ideas behind the
transportation policy documents. This is because the document analysis can show that a correlation may exist but cannot establish causality unless the document asserts this comes from academia by specifically citing a scholar. Therefore, interviews are necessary for the causal aspect on the research to be able to draw actual conclusions. The interviews followed a semi-structured method to allow room for expansion on ideas and perspectives the interviewees deem important while still leaving room for the space for my own key questions to obtain necessary information to answer the subquestions. Bryman states that semi-structured interviews ensure that the researcher maintains an open mind so that theories can be formed from the data by following a script to a point with some level of freedom within the interview (2012, 12 & 471). The interviewees were asked eight questions and the first three were to gain an understanding of how the individuals gain their knowledge to stay up-to-date in their respective jobs. Further questions were asked to see if there was contention and political differences that integrated in the policy development stage as well as the integral part of the explanation of the motivation behind the specific
Transportation Justice Policy
Amsterdam Copenhagen San Francisco Accessibility Exposure Modal Options Functions Capabilities
not reveal the topic of transportation justice prior to the interview was to determine the extent of knowledge they knew inherently without having time to research it.
3.3.1 Interview Questions
1. Why do you think the current policy (and direction) of transportation planning is important in your city?
2. What were the main factors in deciding on this current policy direction? 3. What types of things are you reading to stay up to date with transportation
planning concepts and issues?
4. Have you heard of the concept of transportation justice?
5. Does the concept of transportation justice have any influence on your job and the policy and plans you help to design/create?
6. Would you or are you making transportation justice a priority in your job? 7. Are you aware of the current academic debate on transportation justice in
transportation planning?
8. Do you believe that the academic viewpoint and research is guiding policy and current city transportation planning? How could the science/policy interface be improved?
3.3.2 Interviewees
City Respondent Position Date Method
Amsterdam Remine Alberts Vervoerregio Amsterdam Regional Council 11-April-2018 In Person Amsterdam Thomas Koorn Beleidsadviseur (Senior Policy Advisor) for Traffic
and Public Space for Gemeente Amsterdam 30-April-2018 In Person Amsterdam Jan-Bert Vroege D66 Councilor for
Amsterdam 3-May-2018 In Person
Copenhagen Per Hansen
Senior Advisor of Danish Ministry of Transport, Building, and Housing 13-April-2018 Phone Call Copenhagen Steffen Rasmussen
Traffic and Urban Life Department
Manager in Copenhagen
18-April-2018 Phone Call
San Francisco Anne Fritzler Strategic Planning Team at SFMTA
19-April-2018 Phone Call San Francisco Sarah Jones Planning Director
at SFMTA 7-May-2018 Phone Call Table 1. Interviewees and Their Information. Created by author.
4. Results
The cities of Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and San Francisco have developed slightly varied methods in which to plan and execute their transportation plans, yet most of their plans have a component of justice. Amsterdam and Copenhagen have a global reputation of really understanding what plans needs to be put into place to achieve their lower rates of car dependency that progressive cities and conservative cities look to alike. Individuals working for municipal transit authorities or governments expressed and provided valuable insight into the picture of how transportation justice is occurring in their jobs and in their respective cities. All of the interviewees
information and positions are listed in Table 1 shown above.
4.1 Amsterdam
Figure 3. Location of Amsterdam. Created by author from Google Maps screenshot. Amsterdam is a city that has an over 700-year history that attracts many to live, work, and visit. It’s location in the Netherlands is shown above in Figure 3. It is renowned for its cultural and cycling heritage and presence. Boasting a fairly high rate of all trips in the city by bicycle, it receives global attention for its perception of a very advanced and leftish city. Millions come to visit the capital city each year and tourists have become an area of focus along with commuters in the field of mobility. The city itself has a municipal planning department, multiple universities, and a regional council that works on the surrounding area.
The Uitvoeringsprogramma Verkeer & Vervoer for 2017 was presented in December 2016 (Stadsregio Amsterdam et al, 2016, 8). Objectives utilized as a baseline for the city of Amsterdam’s projects relate to helping the citizens in a multifaceted manner. An overarching approach to mobility in the city of Amsterdam is by conducting mobility research to create and support new and existing policy to be able to have more available data to make more informed decisions to benefit the city (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 9). The implementation of ‘Smart Mobility’ will contribute to a model for enhancing traffic and transportation flow (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016,
by road and boosting freight rail” as well as increasing coherence between the various modal transportation networks, such as between cyclists, car users, public transit options, and pedestrians is key to any region (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 12). An additional focal point throughout the document was its commitment to sustainable mobility. Using more sustainable transportation modes allows for an overall reduction of CO2 emissions (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 12).
Infrastructure is an integral component of any transportation network and the quality with which it is maintained and created is a large indicator to the overall system as a whole. Amsterdam has placed a priority on utilizing their infrastructure even more and even building upon their freight network of infrastructure (Stadsregio
Amsterdam, 2016, 8). Additional financial contributions have also been utilized for improving and stimulating the area between Volendam-Purmerend-Amsterdam (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 22).
Limiting the risk of accidents and striving to make streets and all transportation infrastructure safer for individuals is a vital task to encourage more vulnerable and sustainable transportation modes. Amsterdam is striving for less traffic victims through the utilization of road safety campaigns and infrastructure (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 23). The city is also investigating the risk and situations around some schools in Amsterdam to examine the extent of the accident data and
gathering way to improve safety, but especially in regard to public transportation (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 24). A direction to help undercut accidents is by maintaining the infrastructure and regular maintenance of tram and metro services (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 29).
A key component of Amsterdam is cycling, and as a result, officials are always looking for more way to promote cycling and communicate between various local officials and other parties or stakeholders (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 23). Since tourism is a big industry in Amsterdam, the city has focused on making all signs recognizable and uniform to users from outside the Netherlands in addition to innovative road design for cycling infrastructure (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 23). The ‘Investeringsagenda Fiets’ program is to grow the overall rate of cycling in the city by expanding tunnels and infrastructure (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 8) and also by presenting safe cycling networks and expanding bicycle parking (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 12). Bicycle storage can be a problem that plagues certain areas of Amsterdam which fueled the idea for increased underground bicycle parking and additional storage locations for bicycles in general (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 38). Further research on cycling in Amsterdam increases opportunities to combat issues relating to cycling as well as the possibility for increased monitoring
(Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 23).
Public transportation is a vital component to the city combatting car usage and to make that sector more green; the city is introducing a co-saving measure by placing solar panels on certain transit stations (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 25). Additional environmentally friendly measures are using green roofs on new public
transportation stations to improve the water drainage and air quality to create more comfort for the inhabitants in the vicinity (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 25). The final major component of making the transit network more environmentally friendly is the realizing of the electric transport in Schipholnet (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 31).
Building upon making the transportation sector as ecofriendly as possible is by implementing zero emission buses in the regional network that is fully operational by 2025 (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 25). A reoccurring focus in the document is also the premise of focusing on the maintaining a “quality public transit network with reliable and acceptable travel times” (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 12) and making adjustments when deemed necessary (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 28). The link between regional and local rail is going to be under constant attention to develop an overall stronger connection between transportation modes (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 24). A greater amount of attention is also being allocated to growing the overall amount of passengers and working to raise the overall customer satisfaction of public transportation (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 12).
While automobiles are not a large focus in this document, it does receive some attention. The city is first encouraging motorists to implement another means of transit during peak travel times or leave at a time that is off-peak (Stadsregio
Amsterdam, 2016, 21). The implementation of the VENOM traffic model will and has aided in transportation studies and producing forecasting models in the surrounding metropolitan area of Amsterdam (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 25). The last policy direction aimed at motorization is by using space in a clever way to aid in the saving of kilometers traveled by densifying and integrating working and residential space (Stadsregio Amsterdam, 2016, 25). Figure 4, below, shows the projects in
A common theme in all interviews in Amsterdam was the important of meeting the growing transit needs of a growing city. It is a central focus in the city of Amsterdam to be meeting the housing needs of all the new inhabitants which is producing new strains and needs for increased mobility. Remine Alberts posed it as a question of with the increased density, “how do we do mobility?” (R. Alberts, personal
communication, 11-April-2018). Ms. Alberts also discussed the different types of modal options bringing different levels of environmental concerns and how to integrate them to bring efficiency without isolating sections of the city (R. Alberts, personal communication, 11-April-2018). An extension of Ms. Alberts' words were echoed in Thomas Koorn’s by stating that the focus on decreasing car dependence has been a primary goal the last four years (T. Koorn, personal communication, 30-April-2018). The order of focus for modes of transportation and the priority that the city of Amsterdam gives is the pedestrians are first, followed by cyclists with a goal of increasing room for the two previous modes, then public transit, and receiving the least amount of priority is cars, following discussion with Mr. Koorn (T. Koorn, personal communication, 30-April-2018).
Jan-Bert Vroege placed the emphasis of the city direction on city growth, like the others, but followed it up with a focus on tourism, working, and living components (J. Vroege, personal communication, 3-May-2018). He recalled how the city of
Amsterdam used to have more specific neighborhoods, yet growth has impacted the city with its fast population increase and mobility components need to maintain the mobility requirements of the people (J. Vroege, personal communication, 3-May-2018). He stands behind this direction of emphasizing not using a car in the city anymore and is even for an increase in parking costs for the city, stating that if
people can’t pay the parking fee then the individual “shouldn’t have a car” (J. Vroege, personal communication, 3-May-2018). Vroege’s answer for decreasing the
presence of the car is to expand public transit to cater to those who cannot or do not want to cycle, further stating that it is the “best solution for everyone” (J. Vroege, personal communication, 3-May-2018).
The main factor stated on the current policy direction in Amsterdam was that it is research based, building on the trends and growth in the city (T. Koorn, personal communication, 30-April-2018). A picture that Mr. Koorn discussed is that even though it is a cycling-centric city there are still many car trips and that with current parking policies only 1 out 5 homes can have a car (T. Koorn, personal
communication, 30-April-2018). Mr. Vroege asserts that city growth is driving the policy direction as well as the desire for lessening noise and air pollution to coincide with the desire for healthy and quick mobility (J. Vroege, personal communication, 3-May-2018). Bicycling in Amsterdam is freedom according to Mr. Vroege (J. Vroege, personal communication, 3-May-2018). Ms. Alberts asserts that the city is actually behind on the direction desired, due to the delay caused by the financial crisis and the stagnation only ceased about five years ago, and that quality plans takes time but Zuidas was “a very fast thought” (R. Alberts, personal communication, 11-April-2018).
The methods the interviewees use in their jobs to gain information, especially concerning transportation planning concepts and issues, universally were journal articles (R. Alberts, personal communication, 11-April-2018; T. Koorn, personal communication, 30-April-2018; J. Vroege, personal communication, 3-May-2018).
Ms. Alberts further states that she reads Jane Jacobs, relies on the civil servants who know a lot, and just by walking around, capping off one of her perspectives in further saying “you don’t need thick books to get all the information” (R. Alberts, personal communication, 11-April-2018). Mr. Koorn gets most of his information from news, both local and global, that focus on transit, specific magazines on public
transit, and the cooperation with the local academic organizations, such as UvA and VU (T. Koorn, personal communication, 30-April-2018). Mr. Vroege utilizing
information from official papers from city hall, attending sessions at Pakhuis de Zwijger, regular talks with colleagues in other cities and with the national government (J. Vroege, personal communication, 3-May-2018). He followed these sources by commenting that “mobility isn’t rocket science” and that we still have all the forms as they haven’t really changed lately (J. Vroege, personal communication, 3-May-2018). When asked if the interviewees had heard of the concept of transportation justice the answers were largely yes, but one interviewee, Ms. Alberts, didn’t acknowledge the term until later in the conversation when she knew all the components of
transportation justice but without immediately recognizing the phrasing (R. Alberts, personal communication, 11-April-2018). So, at the juncture when asked she discussed projects to give older adults, age 65+, free transit to aid in their
participation in society and that minimum wage families receive benefits to help them be mobile and participate in society (R. Alberts, personal communication, 11-April-2018. Mr. Koorn did not immediate recognize the English word but immediately discovered its Dutch equivalent, vervoersarmoede, and discussed he reads many articles from Karel Martens and uses his information in presentations (T. Koorn, personal communication, 30-April-2018). He believes that these concepts are not widely known among policy makers and that they need more attention (T. Koorn, personal communication, 30-April-2018). Mr. Vroege responded yes and discovered the word and concept in its entirety before the latest set of elections in the
Netherlands (J. Vroege, personal communication, 3-May-2018). He discussed how he believes that this concept brings the poverty and mobility conversations together and how his goal is for mobility for all and further discussed a project to aid the blind in their mobility capital (J. Vroege, personal communication, 3-May-2018).
All interviewees said that transportation justice had some degree of influence on their job but definitely to varying degrees. Mr. Koorn said a direct yes (T. Koorn, personal communication, 30-April-2018), and Mr. Vroege gave a vaguer answer and
discussed the mobility for all policy direction and that a problem occurring in
Amsterdam is a low income general budget (J. Vroege, personal communication, 3-May-2018). Ms. Alberts states that it is not in the way its created and discussed the breakdown for housing in Amsterdam, stating that 40% allocation for lowest income, 40% for the middle class, and 20% for upper class, and the desire “to have an undivided city” as to not be segregated by income (R. Alberts, personal
communication, 11-April-2018). She further stated that as Amsterdam is being swamped with money that the local citizens not being pushed out is a huge priority as well to be a “counterweight to the power of money which is politics” (R. Alberts, personal communication, 11-April-2018). When asking if they would go further and
When pressing in to see the extent of their awareness of the academic debate on transportation justice in transportation planning, the answers were varied. Ms. Alberts acknowledged it and then discussed further projects in Amsterdam, relating to the Nord-Zuid Lijn and the effects that had on the city and diverting slightly from the question (R. Alberts, personal communication, 11-April-2018). Mr. Koorn responded that the debate is starting and that it will probably decrease car accessibility (T. Koorn, personal communication, 30-April-2018). He expanded further and that following the concept fully could lead to worse air quality and less room in the city, the possibility of restricting a good case, and that it is overall not an easy debate (T. Koorn, personal communication, 30-April-2018). Mr. Vroege stated that it is not being talked about a lot and that the cultural meaning of what transit is has a strong impact still, especially outside the A10 where a car is a status symbol and signals that you are more wealthy and that inside the A10 a good bike is a status symbol (Mr. Vroege, personal communication, 3-May-2018).
When asked about if they believe that the academic viewpoint and research is guiding policy it was largely an answer of ‘yes’, policy is driven at least to a degree by academia (R. Alberts, personal communication, 11-April-2018; T. Koorn, personal communication, 30-April-2018; Mr. Vroege, personal communication, 3-May-2018). Ms. Alberts expressed a resounding yes and that it is fueling an active debate and fight against injustice (R. Alberts, personal communication, 11-April-2018). Mr. Koorn expressed that the interface is actually quite good and has dramatically improved in recent times (T. Koorn, personal communication, 30-April-2018). Mr. Vroege
expressed that politicians use the information to reinforce their existing views and not always to expand beyond that (Mr. Vroege, personal communication, 3-May-2018). Further suggestions for improving the science/policy interface were relayed by Mr. Koorn in that when a new project is conducted on the policy maker’s end, to try and invite an academic on the team as well as having their own research department (T. Koorn, personal communication, 30-April-2018). Mr. Vroege suggested that
academics should be more vocal about their research as policy makers do not
always have the time to search everything out (Mr. Vroege, personal communication, 3-May-2018). Overall academics should also be more outgoing and open with
politicians (Mr. Vroege, personal communication, 3-May-2018).
4.2 Copenhagen
Copenhagen has the privilege of boasting one of the highest rates of cycling in the world. It is also known for its modernity and greenness with ambitious goals relating to the “environment, mobility and quality of life amongst others” (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 3). Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark and houses many
universities. The location can be seen above in Figure 5. The National government is also in Copenhagen creating an atmosphere for collaboration. Copenhagen is also continually labeled one of the best places in the world to live and the happiest city in the world.
Copenhagen produced its “Better Mobility in Copenhagen ITS Action Plan 2015” in 2014 and it was approved by their Technical and Environmental Committee in September 2014. The current administration in Copenhagen is continuing to include stakeholders in ITS projects and overall work (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 8). The core of the plan includes many pilot projects and public private partnerships (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 3). Core elements of ITS, or Intelligent Transport Systems, is the inclusion of the concept of the Smart City as well as its climate plan to become fully carbon neutral by 2025 (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 3), which is an incredibly ambitious goal. In addition is a main goal of producing a rate of 75% of all trips in the city to be carried out by sustainable transportation modes, such as cycling, walking, and public transit (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 4). This goal is further built upon by generating a long-term vision of a minimum of 1/3 of trips for each mode, of a bicycle and public
transportation, and further a maximum of 1/3 of trips to be by automobile (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 4). These types of goals and long-term visions require a solid infrastructure able to support the increase in use of modes, aside from a vehicle, and that produces the city’s desire to make better use of the current infrastructure to improve the flow of traffic across all modes (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 8). Another creative vision that Copenhagen is working to
implement is the repurposing of parking spaces that are empty to facilitate a better, and even more flexible, use of space on the street to better meet traffic needs mainly for sustainable modes and community building space (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 14). The air quality in Copenhagen must be very clean as to not cause any stress about the inhabitant’s health as well as decreasing noise to allow
inhabitants to sleep peacefully and be undisturbed by traffic noise (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 4).
Traffic safety and reducing the risk for the largely pedestrian and cyclist groups, which disproportionately represent the groups of people that involved in accidents that result in serious injury or death with about 2/3 of all death and serious injuries incidents, became of great importance (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 13). This idea of reducing accidents and making the streets and infrastructure safer for residents is a major tenet of transportation justice. Another ambitious goal set forth by the city is to reduce the total number of serious injuries or death incidents to be halved compared to the numbers the city experienced during 2009-2011 (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 5). As well as trying to combat the one-third of road accidents occurring during hours that are covered in darkness through the
Allotting for cycling and pedestrians is a key form of sustainable transportation and, therefore, key to the framework of transportation justice. Pedestrians traffic was being encouraged to grow by 20% by 2015 from the rate that was present six years earlier in 2009 (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 5). Allowing pedestrians ample amount of time to walk during a green crossing signal, among decreasing the wait time, to increase the safety factor associated with walking and a slight time decrease in waiting to make it more appealing (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 6). Cycling also maintained a high priority in this policy document as a 50% cycling rate to places of employment and education by 2015 (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 5). Green waves made for cyclists were already implemented on some level before this policy was created, but the expanding of the project became a priority to expand the infrastructure and overall trying to reduce travel time for
cyclists (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 11-12). To gain further awareness for cycling and for allowing an avenue for the displaying of real-time traffic
information for cyclists through a dynamic sign to display anticipated travel times for cars as well as cycling and alternative route information when needed (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 21-22). In terms of travel time for cyclists there is a desire to decrease it by 5% for each five years that passes so 5% by 2015, 10% by 2020, and 15% by 2025 (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 5), while also increasing the average speed experienced on cycle routes by 1.6 kph (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 6).
Public transportation was not the central theme of this policy document, but was not forgotten, and follows the ideals of transportation justice in cities. Copenhagen worked to increase the reliability of public transportation travel times by at least 10% (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 6) and create dedicated lanes for buses that have GPS signaling with the traffic light to turn green to lessen the travel times for buses in the city (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 10). The overall goal for the metropolitan area of Copenhagen is to increase ridership of MOVIA’s bus network to 160 million riders annually (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 9).
The less sustainable method of using personal vehicles was still a mode used in the policy direction of Copenhagen because it still represents a decent number of
inhabitants using this method. Copenhagen worked to increase the predictions of their travel times for vehicles in peak times and situations with dense traffic by at least 10% (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 6). The priority road network was also considered to decrease the number of stops encountered when traveling on it by at least 10% as well (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 6). In addition to focusing on the priority road network implementing the concept of ECO-driving is also desired to help reduce emissions from vehicles by altering their starting and stopping patterns to help vehicles make less noise and encounter fuel savings as well (Centre of Traffic and Urban Life, 2014, 12).
When interviewing the policy officials in Copenhagen an informative session ensued. When discussing the current policy direction in their city, it was largely focused on the cycling infrastructure and their green transport policy plan, which further
expanded the desire to see the city Copenhagen to be CO2 neutral by 2025 through its “strong political commitment” (P. Hansen, personal communication, 13-April-2018; S. Rasmussen, personal communication, 18-April-2018). The driving factor in seeing this policy direction carried out was a healthy and livable city which is fueling the
promotion of mobility modes like walking and cycling (S. Rasmussen, personal communication, 18-April-2018). Mr. Rasmussen further discussed that the goal is to improve quality of life and to develop a safe and clean environment while asserting that 42% of trips to work and education are by bicycle (S. Rasmussen, personal communication, 18-April-2018). Mr. Hansen stated that in 2009 plans were made by an independent commission consisting of trade organizations, academics, and regional representatives and they made a report independent of government, which local government then used to pick what they liked to implement as policy (P.
Hansen, personal communication, 13-April-2018). Academics had a part of the commission but states it was hard to say the level of impact precisely, but that academics did contribute (P. Hansen, personal communication, 13-April-2018). Mr. Hansen further stated that all transport projects now require cost-benefit analysis and socioeconomic analysis (P. Hansen, personal communication, 13-April-2018). The methods used by the interviewees to stay current on issues in the transportation community is through the partnership with the local Denmark Technical University, which has a 2 million Euro contract for advice (S. Rasmussen, personal
communication, 18-April-2018; P. Hansen, personal communication, 13-April-2018). Mr. Rasmussen said that he has learned a lot from the Dutch and other partner cities that Copenhagen has, such as congestion issues from London and further
information from Hamburg (S. Rasmussen, personal communication, 18-April-2018). In addition, looking to EU projects has a good knowledge exchanging program to benefit Copenhagen (S. Rasmussen, personal communication, 18-April-2018). Both responded with a no when asked directly about knowing the concept of transportation justice but discusses further about “mobility for all” (P. Hansen, personal communication, 13-April-2018), and that the mayor of Copenhagen is talking a lot about equal access and developing policies along that line (S.
Rasmussen, personal communication, 18-April-2018). Mr. Hansen stated that the concept is not used directly in his job, but rather indirectly (P. Hansen, personal communication, 13-April-2018). The premise of equal access is guided by politicians and a current focus is the distribution of investments on geographical areas guided by the ideal of the same travel time standard and expectation regardless of
socioeconomic status and location (P. Hansen, personal communication, 13-April-2018). A common challenge is that there is usually “a high return of investments on roads and a low return of investment on trains”, yet there remains a balanced
investment system anyway (P. Hansen, personal communication, 13-April-2018). Mr. Rasmussen, while stating that he wasn’t really aware of the concept, further stated that transportation justice and its tenets have an influence on his job (S. Rasmussen, personal communication, 18-April-2018). Their focus is equal access and pushing investment on walking, cycling, and public transport, but are not using the term (S. Rasmussen, personal communication, 18-April-2018). The city follows the guidelines from the previous thought while continuing to push for many freedoms and access to everyone, including those that disabled to participate in society equally (S.
mobility while considering congestion the main externality (P. Hansen, personal communication, 13-April-2018). Mr. Rasmussen is implementing the notion of
transportation justice and carrying it out in practice but the concept in general “is not high on the agenda” (S. Rasmussen, personal communication, 18-April-2018). When asked about if they believe that the academic viewpoint and research is
guiding policy it was largely an answer of yes, as the relationships with the Technical University in Denmark have been fruitful and that they are following the advice of the university (P. Hansen, personal communication, 13-April-2018; S. Rasmussen, personal communication, 18-April-2018). Some of Mr. Hansen’s coworkers do not believe in the efficacy of the relationship, but he agrees that it is helpful and that the information is being utilized (P. Hansen, personal communication, 13-April-2018). Overall, he believes that the advice being given by academics is increasing (P. Hansen, personal communication, 13-April-2018). “Academics and researchers have a lot of influence”, according to Mr. Rasmussen (S. Rasmussen, personal
communication, 18-April-2018). Knowledge is also coming from outside consultancy companies that are helping to keep the city informed (S. Rasmussen, personal communication, 18-April-2018). Further suggestions for improving the science/policy interface were relayed by Mr. Hansen in that at times “academics can be too afraid of taking part in the discussions” and to not remain too shy (P. Hansen, personal communication, 13-April-2018). It is important, too, to not let the individuals that do not have as much knowledge speak, while the ones with a greater amount of
knowledge on the issue(s) are remaining silent (P. Hansen, personal communication, 13-April-2018). Mr. Rasmussen expressed that it is vital to include and involve
researchers on projects, but that ultimately these decisions and advice rely on the city council (S. Rasmussen, personal communication, 18-April-2018). Networking and knowledge sharing is also very important and only growing in importance (S. Rasmussen, personal communication, 18-April-2018). To aid in a more complete access of information and knowledge from the universities it is important to have the municipal organizations to share their data with the universities to create an
environment to build off of each other (S. Rasmussen, personal communication, 18-April-2018).
4.3 San Francisco
The city of San Francisco is a dense and left-wing city pioneering many social and activist movements over the last decades, particularly in the United States. It boasts a reputation of being a forward thinking, dynamic city that has a desire to see not only justice but sustainability as a whole be made relevant in the city. The setting of the city here is that is has a municipal planning department, a regional planning department, a major university, along with many advocacy groups and
corporations/companies. The city of San Francisco also maintains a very high cost of living. The city of San Francisco, located on the west coast as seen above in Figure 6, has a rare situation in the United States as it has its own transportation authority as well as partnering with the regional, county of San Francisco which is rather sprawling, for mobility plans. It is, in itself, responsible for the mobility plans in the city though. This allows the city to focus more in-depth on a smaller area and, therefore, able to better serve its inhabitants. San Francisco is seeking to work together to enhance and maintain their transportation network and to see
communities connected (SFMTA, 2013, 7). The city is very cognizant that the goal cannot be achieved alone and is striving to continue to develop more and more partnerships with local businesses and stakeholders (SFMTA, 2013, 7). It further carries a title of being one of the United States’ leaders in reduction of transport-related CO2 emissions and in achieving justice-transport-related goals (SFMTA, 2013, 10). The city lists its vision as: “San Francisco: great city, excellent transportation
choices” (SFMTA, 2013, 7). The strategic plan produced for fiscal years 2013-2018 was the result of input from SFMTA personnel, external stakeholders, and surveys from the public to examine for the themes that were deemed essential (SFMTA, 2013, 7). The main goals listed by SFMTA (San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency) highlight the overarching premise of the direction the city desire to go. The first strategic goal listed is to “create a safer transportation experience for everyone” (SFMTA, 2013, 7). The second strategic goal is to “make transit, walking, bicycling, taxi, ridesharing, and carsharing the preferred means of travel” (SFMTA, 2013, 7). The third strategic goal is to “improve the environment and quality of life in San Francisco” (SFMTA, 2013, 7). The last main strategic goal is to “create a workplace that delivers outstanding service” (SFMTA, 2013, 7). A more in-depth analysis of the objectives within each of the larger strategic goals reveals that it is striving to make the city more just, but also really following the priority of the Transit First model (SFMTA, 2013, 9).
A main tenet of transportation justice that SFMTA is following is the commitment to making the main mode of travel beyond just the private automobile and expanding to more sustainable modes of transit to not only be viable but preferred (SFMTA, 2013, 9). It is following that commitment with the concrete goal of achieving at least 50% of trips undertaken to be taken my means aside from the private automobile (SFMTA, 2013, 9). The push for more sustainable methods of transit is completely rooted in a desire to be able to have inhabitants live, work, and visit different areas in the city without the need or desire to use a private vehicle (SFMTA, 2013, 9). Aside from the target of also managing to keep all public transportation on time, there is also the launching of the ‘Central Subway’ and the ‘Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit project’ to
