Uneven mobility : injustice in accessibility and urban experimentation

Abstract

We all transport ourselves from place to place to live life in this connected world. Academics call the ease by which we can do so accessibility. Yet, the uneven distribution of accessibility, particularly the immobility of the disadvantaged, continues to be a profound injustice. A long history of automobile-oriented and engineering-focused transportation planning has been dominated by powerful political and economic actors to continue to perpetuate this status quo. Taking accessibility as the major outcome of interest, this thesis charts underrecognized routes to realizing more just outcomes in two parts. The first part explores the possibilities of new representations of space in changing a discourse. It does this through creating a collaborative accessibility tool (https://accessmichigan.mit.edu/) using the latest mapping and web development libraries, with iterative feedback confirming the potential of the idea.

By highlighting accessibility, it starts to spur discussion of what the transportation system is for and how we might shape more just outcomes. The second part takes issue with current conceptions of urban experimentation as neglecting important sites of agency. It consists of three deep case studies of urban experimentation in SE Michigan: EZ Ride, a technologically enabled coordinated community-based transportation service; refleX, a city-suburb collaboration for a well-marketed, limited-stop express bus service; and Night Shift, a ride hailing subsidy pilot with reflexive feedback and iterative processes. Upon framing these experiments as processes, the case studies show that urban experimentation represents a site of concentrated possibility, and can change the rules of the game through supporting new coalitions or building organizational capacity.

The thesis integrates both parts to identify these three specific mechanisms of institutional change: 1) changing the discourse, 2) rearranging networks of actors, and 3) learning by doing. In the hands of motivated bottom-up actors, these can be meaningful routes to start chipping away at the systems shaping urban mobility today and making steps towards a future that is more mobile and just.