Local and Urban Politics

E13(b) - What is “public” about public transportation?

Date: Jun 13 | Time: 01:45pm to 03:15pm | Location: 680 Sherbrooke St. West 495

Chair/Président/Présidente : Patricia Wood (York University)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Theresa Enright (University of Toronto)

Public, Private, or Common Transportation?: Theresa Enright (University of Toronto)
Abstract: Transit networks are objects of intense political contestation and are key terrains of struggle in cities around the world. Essential to contemporary urbanization, transit networks are a strategic link in the interrelated crises of urban poverty, social reproduction, security, racism, democracy and climate. In this paper, I consider transit as a critical infrastructure of oppression and resistance and as a key platform for political and social change. Drawing on transit-oriented mobilizations in several cities, I trace how practices of commoning transit are striving to organize mobility in resistance to state apparatuses of violence, domination, exclusion, and exploitation. Building on this, I question the political and practical utility of private, public, and common forms of organizing and governing mobility.

Free Public Transit for Youth Experiencing Homelessness: Breaking Barriers to Access and Impacts on Social Exclusion: Noah A. Kelly (McGill University)
Abstract: For people experiencing homelessness, transportation poverty significantly contributes to experiences of social exclusion (Murphy, 2019), criminalization (Douglas, 2011), and barriers to accessing support services needed to break cycles of homelessness (Scott et al., 2020). Among youth, early intervention is essential in preventing recurring and chronic homelessness (Chamberlain & Mackenzie, 1998; Chamberlain & Johnson, 2008). Ensuring access to essential services by breaking mobility barriers is thus a key aspect of preventing chronic homelessness among youth. This paper explores the impact of a three-month free public transit intervention on housing security, access to support services, education, safety, criminalization, and physical health among 36 youth experiencing homelessness in Toronto. Additionally, the impact of increased mobility on mental health and feelings of social inclusion were observed. Methods: We utilize a mixed-methods approach, using pre and post-intervention focus groups, a longitudinal survey, and comparing pre-intervention travel diaries to geospatial data gathered from participant transit cards. Findings: Pre-intervention, transportation poverty was experienced by all participants. The severity of transportation poverty was dictated by structural factors, including participant transience and financial security, transportation supports offered at each shelter, ease of fare evasion, and experiences of physical and psychic safety on transit. During and after the intervention, improvements in social inclusion, employment, financial security, mental health, physical health, and access to health services were observed. Secure access to mobility elicited feelings of self-determination and social citizenship among participants, shifting feelings of belonging, long-term planning, and inspired ontologies of hope.

Views and Values of Elected Officials on Transportation Equity: Orly Linovski (University of Manitoba)
Abstract: Arguably, the distribution of transportation benefits is mediated through elected officials, who are instrumental in framing the goals and priorities of these investments (Hay & Trinder, 1991; Taylor, Kim, & Gahbauer, 2009). Despite this, scholars note that as a field rooted in a technical-rational model, research on transportation often treats politicians and policymakers as “exogenous to the decision-making process”, rather than seeking to understand the complexity of political contexts, power, and legitimacy (Marsden & Reardon, 2017, p. 245). With little research that specifically assesses whether and how politicians value equity in transportation policies, it is difficult to see how transportation processes can become more just. This research addresses these gaps by examining how local elected officials view and understand transportation equity, and the implications of this for equitable outcomes and practices. This research used a mixed-method approach, drawing on a national survey (n = 165) and in-depth interviews (n = 38) with councillors and mayors to better understand (1) their values related to transportation equity and (2) how they view equity-seeking groups and communities. Our findings show that elected officials have divergent values related to transportation equity, with little concurrence in how equity-deserving communities are identified and what types of barriers they face. Critically, we find little support among elected officials for policies that prioritize structurally disadvantaged communities, rather than provide benefits to the greatest number of people. These findings point to the need for foundational discussions about normative values for both elected officials and transportation professionals.

The politics of transportation as public space: Infrastructural citizenship on the Mumbai metro and local trains: Patricia Wood (York University)
Abstract: This paper considers the political significance of the many differences between the experience of taking the metro and the suburban commuter trains (more commonly referred to as the ‘local trains’) in Mumbai, India. There are several critical differences between the two urban rail systems in their cost, social and physical accessibility, activities in the stations and vehicles, the presence of economic activity and advertising, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems, the way the vehicles interact with the city when they are in motion, and the presence of animals. Based on intensive participant observation field research from January to April 2023, the paper examines how the different design, architecture, and social life of the two forms of transportation infrastructure produce riders differently as physical bodies and as political subjects, and specifically as citizens of a democracy. I analyse these differences drawing on theoretical frames from scholarship in infrastructural citizenship and democracy with emphasis on everyday practice and whether spaces are emancipatory as well as inclusive. For the purposes of emphasizing the distinctions, I propose that the metro system produces alienated and disciplined political subjects, and the local trains system produces grounded, embedded, emancipated, self-governing political subjects. The consequences of these distinctions for democratic practice in the city are significant.

Mobility justice in public transit hierarchies: Low-income experiences of the paradox of “Rapid-Transit”: Emmett McDougall (University of Waterloo)
Abstract: Across North America, mid-size cities are integrating rapid transit projects to encourage development and recapture middle and upper-income groups as choice transit users. They sell the newness and desirability of rapid transit, driving investment and densification in areas along the line. However, little consideration is given to original captive users, who are traditionally lower-income community members that rely on public transit to move around the city. We conducted semi-structured interviews with (20) low-income individuals and (22) key stakeholders in the region of Waterloo, a mid-sized municipality in Southern Ontario, CA. We use this region as a case study because of its newly operationalized Light Rail Transit (LRT) line, constructed despite an already strong bus network. Our research thus centers the low-income perspective to understand the extent to which “new” means “better” and for whom. Harnessing a mobility justice lens, we find that shifting transit infrastructure has deeply impacted the low-income travel experience. The LRT has fundamentally shifted the transit system, causing confusion for residents who face new barriers navigating the city. This is paired with a cultural shift, as low-income individuals shared experiences of hostility and isolation when riding the LRT as the social experience of riding the train is fundamentally different. Harnessing a mobility justice lens, we consider how to reconceptualize transit plans that center a nested approach to justice. Ultimately, our work further supports the growing body of mobility justice literature that argues transit investment is contributing to power regimes on different scales.

The inclusion of a care(ing) and justice lens in public transit discourse and practice: a literature review: Khairunnabila Prayitno (University of Waterloo)
Abstract: The objective of the proposed paper is to investigate the extent to which the lens of care and justice is incorporated in public transit discourse and practice. The questions I address include: (a) how are concepts of justice and care addressed in current public transit literatures? and (b) In what ways can the concepts of care and justice be included within public transit discourse and practice that considers the mobility of newcomer immigrant women? The incorporation of a justice and care lens in the domain of public transit allows for the expansion of mobile imaginaries (i.e. assumptions of mobile subjects, and whose mobilities we tend to enable) to include narratives of those who have been left out in the past. Current literature on the evaluation of public transit policy and plans are dominantly framed within the realm of equity, or based on equitable distribution of the benefits and costs of transport investment and policy (distributive justice). Justice-oriented approaches, that are more transformative in nature, aligning with conceptions of justice as outlined in mobility justice and spatial justice theories, as well as wider environmental justice movements, are limited within the literature. Practitioners also tend to have a difficult time navigating through understanding how to do ‘equity’ work. Moreover, the application of a care lens, as a concept and in the realm of care work, in the domain of public transit is even less explored. Through a review of current public transit literatures, the paper identifies pathways of incorporating the concepts of care and justice within public transit discourse and practice.