International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET)
e-ISSN: 2395-0056
Volume: 07 Issue: 08 | Aug 2020
p-ISSN: 2395-0072
www.irjet.net
Planning for Equity in Public Transit: A study of Mass Transit in Delhi Dimple Behal Urban & Regional Planner with specialization in Environment, Punjab, India ---------------------------------------------------------------------***----------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract - Equity refers to the distribution of the cost and benefit of a certain resource, project, plan or policy over a different group of people. It is the justice of whether the distribution of the cost of the project impact is appropriate. The decisions often taken in the transportation planning process have significant impacts. These decisions lack the equity considerations which has a diverse impact over different people especially the group which is disadvantaged. Public transit not being a predominant mode of transport still offers basic mobility to all the group of people and providing access to those who can’t afford or lack sufficient economic resources. It is the key to reduce traffic congestion with greater environmental benefits and helps in making communities sustainable. Equity in Public transit plays a wider role as the decisions made on public transit may affect the disadvantaged group more with those having lesser opportunities and lesser ability to adapt to the impacts rather than the people who can adapt to the change. For the disadvantaged, they may lose access over public transit and it may affect in a much wider way by impacting employment and economic development. The paper draws attention to the transport equity issues in case of Delhi by analyzing different equity impacts, evaluating the existing transportation equity, recognizes the institutional vacuum and recommends prompt consideration of equity in Delhi Metro and DTC buses. Key Words: Equity, Public Transit, Accessibility, Mobility, Subsidies
1. INTRODUCTION Equity refers to the distribution of the cost and benefit of a certain resource, project, plan or a policy over different group of people. It is the Egalitarianism and justice of whether the distribution of the cost of the project impact is appropriate and fair. It helps to offer alternatives or choices to those who have access to less. Moreover, the impact is much on the people who lack the sufficient economic resources and have disadvantaged status. A group or an individual is said to be disadvantaged when it falls in the dimension of being deprived of accessibility based on the location it is living, is differently-abled, have lower economical or social status or has the caregiving responsibilities etc. The more the individual or group falls in these dimensions, the more is the degree of impact of any project, plan or policy measure. Based on the type of the decision, the impact may differ on different group of people. The decisions often taken in transportation planning process have significant impacts. These decisions when lack the equity considerations has diverse impact over different people especially the group which is disadvantaged. The expenditures for the transport is the major and above all the expenditures a household, government agency or a firm do. Hence, when public resources allocated or any decisions made irrationally can favour one group over the other, may cause detrimental impact on social and economic opportunities along with hindrance in the economic development. Along with that, it can widen gaps in access to transportation options for people having low income and people of color (TransitCenter, 2018). They can embed existing inequities more deeply into our communities; create new inequities; or, at their best, alleviate some of the more pernicious dimensions of inequality even if only at the margins. Transport serves as a significant "gateway" service that either can bolster or erode all of the factors that support a high quality of life (Blair A. Ruble and William Chernicoff, 2019). Since past, the equity issues has not been evaluated due to its wider complexity which has exacerbated the existing social and equity concerns. Public transit not being a predominant mode of transport still offers basic mobility to all the group of people and providing access to those who can’t afford or lack sufficient economic resources. It is the key to reduce traffic congestion with greater environmental benefits and helps in making communities sustainable. Transit investment projects have been identified as both accessibility and mobility enhancing (Handy, 2005). “Accessibility” may be defined as the description of proximity to destinations of choice and facilities offered by transportation systems (Black, 1977) while “Mobility” can be defined on the basis of distance measure between origin and destination, time taken to travel and amount to be paid for travelling. The initiatives taken by the government to enhance the mobility will enhance accessibility. Mobility, like consumption of all other goods and services, is very unequally distributed amongst city dwellers (Vivier, n.d.) therefore equity issues has to be incorporated in planning. Although the residents in the cities moreover rely upon private cars whie share of public transport and the people who are dependent are quiet less which is 18.1 percent in India as by UITP. According to the survey more than 50% of the workforce (excluding domestic and agriculture) continue to work at home or travel to their workplace by foot in the © 2020, IRJET
|
Impact Factor value: 7.529
|
ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal
|
Page 3405