A Review on the Implications of COVID-19 for Delivering Equitable Transportation

Abstract

COVID-19 has amplified social inequities in many countries (Khazanchi et al., 2020; Marmot & Allen, 2020), including Canada (Dyson & Graham, 2020). These impacts to equity include changes in how people access, use, and benefit from transportation systems. Mobilizing Justice is a partnership of over 30 institutions seeking to advance transportation equity through research and knowledge mobilization. We developed this report to help transportation decision-makers, planners, and researchers better understand, through an equity lens, how COVID-19 has impacted transportation systems. In doing so, this report seeks to answer the following questions: ● How have the COVID-19 pandemic and the policy responses to it aggravated or ameliorated existing barriers to travel for people with different lived experiences? ● How have the COVID-19 pandemic and the policy responses to it altered or created new inequities in transportation access between different communities and people with different lived experiences? ● What are the implications of these changes for delivering equitable transportation systems in the post-pandemic future? This report synthesizes emerging knowledge from over 170 academic and grey literature studies to answer these questions. The report is divided into 15 sections that double as stand-alone briefs about specific topics, covering the topic’s background, the relevant lessons from COVID-19, and the implications for policy and research. This summary presents the overall main findings and recommendations.