New paper out: Distributional effects of transport policies on inequalities in access to opportunities

Glad to share our paper on "Distributional effects of transport policies on inequalities in access to opportunities in Rio de Janeiro" is now out the Journal of Transport and Land Use. I summarize the paper findings and contributions in this short thread here, but please feel free to read the full paper. The journal is open access!

Pereira, R. H. M., Banister, D., Schwanen, T., & Wessel, N. (2019). Distributional effects of transport policies on inequalities in access to opportunities in Rio de Janeiro. Journal of Transport and Land Use, 12(1). doi:10.5198/jtlu.2019.1523

Abstract:

The evaluation of social impacts of transport policies has been attracting growing attention in recent years. Yet studies thus far have predominately focused on developed countries and overlooked whether equity assessment of transport projects is sensitive to the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP). This paper investigates how investments in public transport can reshape socio-spatial inequalities in access to opportunities, and it examines how MAUP can influence the distributional effects of transport project evaluations. The study looks at Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and the transformations carried out in the city in preparation for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, which involved substantial expansion in public transport infrastructure followed by cuts in service levels. The paper uses before-and-after comparison of Rio's transport network (2014-2017) and quasi-counterfactual analysis to examine how those policies affect access to schools and jobs for different income groups and whether the results are robust when the data is analyzed at different spatial scales and zoning schemes. Results show that subsequent cuts in service levels have offset the accessibility benefits of transport investments in a way that particularly penalizes the poor, and that those investments alone would still have generated larger accessibility gains for higher-income groups. These findings suggest that, contrary to Brazil’s official discourse of transport legacy, recent policies in Rio have exacerbated rather than reduced socio-spatial inequalities in access to opportunities. The study also shows that MAUP can influence the equity assessment of transport projects, suggesting that this issue should be addressed in future research.

Who pollutes and who gets exposed to road traffic-related air pollution in the UK

In 2003, Gordon Mitchell and Danny Dorling published "An environmental justice analysis of British air quality", a widely cited paper that became a key reference in the environmental justice literature. Now, 16 years latter, a new paper by Joanna Barnes (Twitter), Tim Chatterton (Twitter) and James Longhurst update the original study with new data and more in depth analysis on the social inequalities in traffic-related pollution exposure and emission.

Barnes, J. H., Chatterton, T. J., and; Longhurst, J. W. (2019). Emissions vs exposure: Increasing injustice from road traffic-related air pollution in the United Kingdom. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 73, 56-66.

Abstract:

This paper presents unique spatial analyses identifying substantial discrepancies in traffic-related emissions generation and exposure by socioeconomic and demographic groups. It demonstrates a compelling environmental and social injustice narrative with strong policy implications for the UK and beyond.

In the first instance, this research presents a decadal update for England and Wales to Mitchell and Dorling’s 2003 analysis of environmental justice in the UK. Using 2011 UK Government pollution and emissions data with 2011 UK Census socioeconomic and demographic data based on small area census geographies, this paper demonstrates a stronger relationship between age, poverty, road NOxemissions and exposure to NO2 concentrations. Areas with the highest proportions of under-fives and young adults, and poorer households, have the highest concentrations of traffic-related pollution.

In addition, exclusive access to UK annual vehicle safety inspection records (‘MOT’ tests) allowed annual private vehicle NOx emissions to be spatially attributed to registered keepers. Areal analysis against Census-based socioeconomic characteristics identified that households in the poorest areas emit the least NOxand PM, whilst the least poor areas emitted the highest, per km, vehicle emissions per household through having higher vehicle ownership, owning more diesel vehicles and driving further.

In conclusion, the analysis indicates that, despite more than a decade of air quality policy, environmental injustice of air pollution exposure has worsened. New evidence regarding the responsibility for generation of road traffic emissions provides a clear focus for policy development and targeted implementation.

Related post:

• Racial inequity in who pollutes and who gets exposed to pollution in the US

credit: Barnes et al 2019

My presentation at the 2019 ITF Summit

shameless self-promotion post  again 

Last week I was attending the 2019 International Transport Forum Summit, where I presented a paper on estimating the future accessibility impacts of transport project scenarios. The study also discusses the equity implications of travel-time threshold choice in cumulative opportunity metrics. Such a sexy topic, ah.

My presentation was recorded and you can watch it here (in case you really need to procrastinate on the work you should be doing now).

Biographical note: ITF/OECD award

Hi all. I am so glad to share that I have been honored with the 2019 Young Researcher of the Year Award, by the International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD). As I've said many times, this award speaks volumes about the generous guidance and support I have received from supervisors and colleagues at both Oxford and Ipea to conduct my research. Special thanks to my incredibly  demanding  supportive supervisors Tim Schwanen and David Banister. Thanks!

This is the award-winning paper, where I investigate the future impacts that different scenarios of a major BRT in Rio de Janeiro could have on access to employment opportunities for different income groups. The study also shows that the the equity assessment of transport projects based on accessibility estimates using cumulative opportunity measures with a single time threshold (the most common practice adopted by academic studies and transport agencies) can lead to misleading or partial conclusions. The preprint of the study is available for download here (it includes a spatial regression analysis that didn't make it into the paper because or reviewer #2).

Thanks to the award, I'll be attending the 2019 International Transport Forum Summit in Leipzig next week. The team at ITF will be Twitting about the Summit. I'll be presenting the paper on May 23rd at  5:15pm (local time). Apparently, it will be webcasted on Facebook Live.

Biographical note: AAG PhD thesis award

I am very pleased to share that my PhD thesis was awarded the best 2019 thesis award by the Transportation Geography Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers (AAG). I am also very honoured that I was nominated a board member of the specialty group. If it could be of interest, my thesis is available for download here and I've created a GitHub repository with the R code used in the data wrangling, mapping and analysis in the thesis. Some of the chapters in the dissertation have been published as papers here, here and here (+ this other one currently under review).

I am very grateful for the the support from my partner Fabiana, from the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea) and to the invaluable guidance from my  demanding  tireless supervisors Tim Schwanen and David Banister. 

ps. the blog has been less active than usual in the past weeks because I was away attending the AAG annual meeting to receive the award and to present this paper here.

New paper out: Transport legacy of mega-events and the redistribution of accessibility to urban destinations

I'm glad to share that the 2nd paper of my thesis is now published. It will remain open access for the next 50 days. Downloaded it here.

This is the 1st empirical paper of my doctoral research. Two other empirical papers are currently under review, but you can read their preprints here and here. My theoretical paper is available here, in case you are looking to have some fun over the weekend.

Pereira, R. H. M. (2018). Transport legacy of mega-events and the redistribution of accessibility to urban destinations. Cities, 81, 45–60. doi:10.1016/j.cities.2018.03.013

Abstract:

Local governments increasingly justify the hosting of mega-events because of their legacy value, assuming that all local residents benefit from those events. Yet, little attention has been paid to the distributive question of who benefits from the transport legacy left by those events. This paper reflects on the delimitation of transport legacies and its social impacts in terms of how such developments can reshape urban accessibility to opportunities. It analyses the transformation in the transport system of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in preparation for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. That transformation involved substantial expansion in public transport infrastructure, followed by cuts in service levels and a reorganization of many bus lines to streamline the transport system. The paper examines whether those recent changes have increased the number of people from different income levels who could access Olympic sports venues and healthcare facilities by public transport within 15, 30, 60 and 90 min. The analysis uses a before-and-after comparison of Rio's transport network (2014–2017) and a quasi-counterfactual scenario to separate the effects of newly added infrastructure from the reorganization and cuts of transport services. The results show that the infrastructure expansion alone would have increased the number of people who could access the Olympic sports venues, but it would have only marginally improved people's access to healthcare facilities. Nonetheless, the findings indicate that the streamlined bus system have offset the benefits of infrastructure investments in a way that particularly penalizes the poor. The analysis of both the implemented changes to the public transport network and the counterfactual scenario show that the accessibility benefits from the recent cycle of investments and disinvestments in Rio generally accrued to middle- and higher-income groups, reinforcing existing patterns of urban inequality.

PhD Thesis submitted !

After  4 years, 9 months and 18 days  quite some time, I have finally submitted my thesis to the Examination School of Oxford University. The thesis is entitled “Distributive Justice and Transportation Equity: Inequality in accessibility in Rio de Janeiro”. You can read the abstract below.

Thank you Christine Moore , Homero Paltán and Kevin Wheeler for being there for me, literally !

I will soon share the thesis manuscript. For now, here is the abstract:

   Public transport policies play a key role in shaping the social and spatial structure of cities. These policies influence how easily people can access opportunities, including health and educational services and job positions. The accessibility impacts of transport policies thus have important implications for social inequalities and for the promotion of just and inclusive cities. However, in the transportation literature, there is still little theoretically informed understanding of justice and what it means in the context of transport policies. Moreover, few studies have moved beyond descriptive analyses of accessibility inequalities to evaluate how much those inequalities result from transport policies themselves. This is particularly true in cities from the global South, where accessibility and equity have so far remained marginal concerns in the policy realm. 

   This thesis builds on theories of distributive justice and examines how they can guide the evaluation of transport policies and plans. It points to pathways for rigorous assessment of the accessibility impacts of transport policies and it contributes to current discussions on transportation equity. A justice framework is developed to assess the distributional effects of transport policies. This framework is then applied to evaluate recent transport policies developed in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in preparation to host sports mega-events, such as the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, which included substantial expansion of the rail and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) infrastructure. This research presents ex-post analyses of the policies implemented between 2014 and 2017 and ex-ante analysis of an as yet unfinished BRT project. It evaluates how the planned transport legacy of those mega-events impacted accessibility to sports venues, healthcare facilities, public schools and job opportunities for different income groups. 

   The results show that there were overall accessibility benefits from the expansion in transport infrastructure between 2014 and 2017, but these were generally offset by the reduction in bus service levels that followed an economic crisis that hit the city after the Olympics. Quasi-counterfactual analysis suggests that, even if the city had not been hit by the economic crisis, recent transport investments related to mega-events would have led to higher accessibility gains for wealthier groups and increased inequalities in access to opportunities. Results suggest that those investments had, or would have had, greater impact on inequalities of access to jobs than in access to schools and healthcare facilities. The evaluation of the future accessibility impacts of the unfinished BRT corridor, nonetheless, indicates that such project could significantly improve access to job opportunities for a large share of Rio’s population, particularly lower-income groups. Spatial analysis techniques show that the magnitude and statistical significance of these results depend on the spatial scale and travel time threshold selected for cumulative opportunity accessibility analysis. These results demonstrate that the ad-hoc methodological choices of accessibility analysis commonly used in the academic and policy literature can change the conclusions of equity assessments of transportation projects.

On my way to Dar es Salaam

The blog has been quiet lately because I've been trying to finish my PhD thesis  I've been saying this for over a year now   but here are two quick updates. 

The 4th paper of my PhD has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Transport Geography \o/. You can read the pre-print of the study here.

The second update is that I will be in Dar es Salaam next week presenting this paper at a workshop organized by the Volvo Research and Education Foundation (VREF), who also kindly invited me to attend the Mobilize summit organized by ITDP.

I'm very excited to learn about some of the urban development challenges faced by African cities. This will also be a great opportunity to discuss how we can improve research methods to assess the equity impacts of transport policies on people's access to opportunities.

Transport legacy of mega-events and the redistribution of accessibility to urban destinations

Good news! The 2nd paper of my thesis is coming out of the oven \o/ . The paper has not been assigned to a journal issue yet, but here you go (pdf).

The paper engages with the literature on mega-events and urban development to understand the particularities of transport planning in Rio de Janeiro, conducted for almost two decades under a context of mega-events planning. It is argued in the study that evaluations of the impacts of mega-events on urban infrastructure should take into account the distributional effects of the transport legacies created by those events, looking particularly at how such transport developments reshape social and spatial inequalities in access to opportunities.

This is the first empirical paper of my thesis. Two other empirical papers are currently under review, but you can read their preprints here and here. My theoretical paper is available here, in case you are interested  or have sleeping problems .

Pereira, R. H. M. (2018). Transport legacy of mega-events and the redistribution of accessibility to urban destinations. Cities. doi:10.1016/j.cities.2018.03.013

Abstract:

Local governments increasingly justify the hosting of mega-events because of their legacy value, assuming that all local residents benefit from those events. Yet, little attention has been paid to the distributive question of who benefits from the transport legacy left by those events. This paper reflects on the delimitation of transport legacies and its social impacts in terms of how such developments can reshape urban accessibility to opportunities. It analyses the transformation in the transport system of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in preparation for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. That transformation involved substantial expansion in public transport infrastructure, followed by cuts in service levels and a reorganization of many bus lines to streamline the transport system. The paper examines whether those recent changes have increased the number of people from different income levels who could access Olympic sports venues and healthcare facilities by public transport within 15, 30, 60 and 90 min. The analysis uses a before-and-after comparison of Rio's transport network (2014–2017) and a quasi-counterfactual scenario to separate the effects of newly added infrastructure from the reorganization and cuts of transport services. The results show that the infrastructure expansion alone would have increased the number of people who could access the Olympic sports venues, but it would have only marginally improved people's access to healthcare facilities. Nonetheless, the findings indicate that the streamlined bus system have offset the benefits of infrastructure investments in a way that particularly penalizes the poor. The analysis of both the implemented changes to the public transport network and the counterfactual scenario show that the accessibility benefits from the recent cycle of investments and disinvestments in Rio generally accrued to middle- and higher-income groups, reinforcing existing patterns of urban inequality.

My talk at Transforming Transportation 2018 and personal impressions on TRB

As some of you will remember, I was in DC a couple of weeks ago to receive the Lee Schipper Memorial Scholarship and to present part of my doctoral research at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) annual meeting and at Transforming Transportation 2018 (TT). In both occasions, I presented an in-progress version of the 3rd paper of my thesis, which can be downloaded/cited from here. 

The two conferences have quite different audiences, though, and I had to adapt my presentation accordingly. While TRB is a typical academic conference, TT is more policy oriented and mostly attended by high-level practitioners. So it was a bit of a challenge to tailor the presentation for TT, particularly because I was only given about 8 minutes  and I was super nervous . I had to cut most of the important 'details' of the research methods and findings which I think make the original contribution of the paper.

Here is the result. My talk at Transforming Transportation 2018 was recorded and you can watch it below.

If you have time, I would recommend watching the whole video and check the talk by Joanna Moody (MIT), who is the other Lee Schipper awardee of 2017 and who is conducting a very interesting research on 'car pride' in different countries. The video also brings a bit more context about the Lee Schipper Memorial Scholarship. Applications to the 2018 Lee Schipper award are open, by the way.

Here are a few personal impressions on the TRB conference:

• The TRB annual meeting is perhaps the largest academic conference on transportation, with approx 15 thousand people. And I thought the annual conference of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) was big with 9k
  
• As you can imagine, the most demanded sessions at TRB were on big data, sharing economy and smart cities and all possible combinations of these topics. I am sure there must have been a session on the potentials of big data to inform the mobility sharing economy and create smarter cities
  
• There were a few dozens of studies on transportation equity, multimodal accessibility analysis, socio-spatial inequalities and segregation using all sorts of data sources such as GTFS, GPS, mobile phones, social media etc. A lot of work is now being conducted in R as well. Only few studies, though, would do a good job at combing robust methods/data to a more theoretically grounded view of accessibility measures and transportation equity, including a more critical understanding of these issues.

It was a humbling experience to attend TRB and one of the takeaway lessons I took with me is this. 

1. The academic environment is getting more competitive, with many more good scholars taking advantage of the richer data sources available out there and conducting super interesting research using cutting edge methods and open source software. The frontier is moving quickly.
   
2.  Beyond the increasing challenge of getting published, it is getting harder to stand out from the crowd and write studies that will be read/cited for having a real impact within the academic community. It is easier nowadays to write good papers. It is becoming harder, however, to give an original contribution.
   
3. The bright side of this story, though, it that on the technical side it is getting relatively easier to use the state of art methods/data from academic research to tackle 'real' problems, improve public policies etc  on the political and governance side things are crazier than ever, though 

On my way to Washington DC

I'm flying to DC in the next few days. Thanks to the Lee Schipper Memorial Scholarship I was awarded in 2017, I am going to present part of my doctoral research at both the TRB annual meeting and Transforming Transportation. In both occasions, I will be presenting an in-progress version of the 3rd paper of my thesis, which you can read below. In case you're in DC next week and would like to grab a  coffee or beer, drop me line or a tweet.

Pereira, R. H. M., Banister, D., Schwanen, T., & Wessel, N. (2017). Distributional effects of transport policies on inequalities in access to opportunities in Rio de Janeiro. SocArXiv. doi:10.17605/OSF.IO/CGHX2. Available at https://osf.io/cghx2

Abstract:

The evaluation of the social impacts of transport policies is attracting growing attention in recent years. Yet, this literature is still predominately focused on developed countries. The goal of this research is to investigate how investments in public transport networks can reshape social and geographical inequalities in access to opportunities in a developing country, using the city of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) as a case study. Recent mega-events, including the 2014 Football World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, have triggered substantial investment in the city’s transport system. More recently, though, bus services in Rio have been rationalized and reduced as a response to a fiscal crisis and a drop in passenger demand, giving a unique opportunity to look at the distributional effects this cycle of investment and disinvestment have had on peoples’ access to educational and employment opportunities. Based on a before-and-after comparison of Rio’s public transport network, this study uses a spatial regression model and cluster analysis to estimate how accessibility gains vary across different income groups and areas of the city between April 2014 and March 2017. The results show that recent cuts in service levels have offset the potential benefits of newly added public transport infrastructure in Rio. Average access by public transport to jobs and public high-schools decreased approximately 4% and 6% in the period, respectively. Nonetheless, wealthier areas had on average small but statistically significant higher gains in access to schools and job opportunities than poorer areas. These findings suggest that, contrary to the official discourses of transport legacy, recent transport policies in Rio have exacerbated rather than reduced socio-spatial inequalities in access to opportunities.

Social inequalities and brute luck

The brute luck of being born in a poor or wealthy family has a tremendous influence on a person's educational performance. One of the most important factors that shape our future life chances is something over which we had no choice whatsoever https://t.co/DgMYSTbabK

— Urban Demographics (@UrbanDemog) 8 December 2017

The paradox of collective choice

In the early 1950s, Kenneth Arrow published his PhD thesis where he demonstrated that it does not exist a method of converting individual preferences into a single group preference that is not limited by a 'voting paradox' at some point. Here is a great video explaining in layman's terms how Arrow's impossibility theorem works.

Needless to say how important this idea is for social choice theory and that it gave Arrow a Nobel Prize in economics. Curious fact. Five of Arrow's former students have won the Nobel Prize.

VotingParadoxes from Paul stepahin on Vimeo.

On my way to Boston

Hi all. I'm flying to Boston in the next few days to participate at the AAG conference.

I'm very excited about this because I'll participate in a panel with Susan Fainstein and others. In the panel, I'll be talking about transportation equity and accessibility in the just city. My talk will be based on the 1st paper of my thesis and some future research questions on the topic.

I will also be at the session 3650 presenting the preliminary results of the 2nd paper of my thesis, where I analyze the distributional impacts of the transport legacy of recent mega-events in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in terms of their impacts in inequalities in access to opportunities. The paper combines population census data with geolocated time-tables in GTFS format in order to conduct a before-and-after comparison of Rio's public transport system between 2014 and 2017. The paper examines how the newly implemented transport investments have reconfigured the catchment areas of the Olympic sports venues and of healthcare facilities by public transport and walking, looking specifically at how the population composition within those areas has changed in terms of income categories.

The other papers of my PhD will focus on inequalities in accessibility to employment and educational opportunities, adding some new elements regarding methods and theoretical discussions. More info to come as I make progress on the research.

ps. In case you're in Boston next week and would like grab a  coffee  beer, drop me line or a tweet.

summary: Distributive justice and equity in transportation

Hi all, the 1st paper of my thesis is now published \o/. You can download it here. If you cannot access the PDF, just let me know and I'll send it to you. Here is a summary of the paper:

Pereira, R. H. M., Schwanen, T., Banister, D. (2017). Distributive justice and equity in transportation. Transport Reviews, 37(2), doi:10.1080/01441647.2016.1257660

What's it about?

As I've mentioned before in the blog, this is a review paper on distributive justice in transportation, particularly focused on transport accessibility and social exclusion. While transport planning has been traditionally concerned with improving the efficiency of transport systems, this paper argues why policy makers and researchers should take issues of equity more seriously and it discusses how justice could be considered in evaluating the distributional aspects of who benefits from transport policies and investments.

In short, the paper:

• reviews how issues of equity and social exclusion have been covered in the transport and mobilities literatures 
• reviews five key theories of justice (utilitarianism, libertarianism, intuitionism, Rawls’ egalitarianism, and Capability Approaches) and critically evaluates the insights they generate when applied to transport 
• proposes a distributive justice framework for policy evaluation, with a focus on transport accessibility and social exclusion

Core ideas of the paper

In the final part of the paper, we build a dialogue between Rawls’ egalitarianism and the Capabilities Approach to propose that distributive justice concerns over transport disadvantage and social exclusion should focus primarily on accessibility as a human capability. This means that, in policy evaluation, a detailed analysis of the distributional effects of transport policies should take account of the setting of minimum standards of accessibility to key destinations and the extent to which these policies respect individuals’ rights and prioritise disadvantaged groups, reduce inequalities of opportunities, and mitigate transport externalities. A full account of justice in transportation requires a more complete understanding of accessibility than traditional approaches have been able to deliver to date.

As you will have noticed, there are five key points developed in the paper. I should try to unpacked them in another post in the future.

1. Focus on accessibility as a human capability
2. Minimum standards of accessibility to key destinations 
3. Respect for individuals’ rights 
4. Prioritization of disadvantaged groups and reduction of inequalities of opportunities
5. Mitigation of transport externalities

Practical implications

For now, I close this post with some of the practical implications of the ideas proposed in the paper:

• "Some of the practical implications of this perspective can be illustrated with issues that commonly arise in cities with investments in public transport (e.g. metro and bus rapid transit developments) and cycling/walking. These types of investments can be good ways to prioritise transport modes which are more widely used by low-income classes. To be considered fair, however, these investments should not override the social rights of families threatened with eviction due to the infrastructure projects. The distributional effects of such investments should be evaluated in terms of the extent to which they reduce inequalities in transport accessibility, particularly by improving the accessibility levels of low-income public transport-dependent groups to key destinations such as employment opportunities, healthcare, and education services. According to this approach, the design of those transport projects (including the design of vehicles, stations, cycle paths, etc.) must be inclusive towards social groups such as the elderly and disabled in order to minimise the impact that non-chosen disadvantages have on people’s capacity to access activities. Moreover, this perspective also calls for complementary policies that discourage car use (e.g. congestion/parking charge and fuel tax) in highly congested and polluted areas to mitigate the negative externalities imposed by drivers on everyone else, particularly on vulnerable populations" p.15-16

I will be glad if some of you have read this far without falling asleep. 

The Social Dilemma of Driverless Cars

Iyad Rahwan presents in a TEDx his recently published paper on the the social dilemma of driverless cars (arXiv version here). HT Cesar Hidalgo.

You should try out the Moral Machine. 

Related link

• Autonomous vehicles

Distributive justice and equity in transportation

Good news! The 1st paper of my thesis has finally been accepted for publication \o/

 This is the first theoretical paper I've dared to write and I can promise this is a good read for those of us with insomnia issues. It is a literature review on distributive justice and equity in transportation policies, particularly focused on transport accessibility and social exclusion. The paper provides the general theoretical framework of the dissertation.

The paper should be published early next year as part of a special issue on transportation equity in the journal Transport Reviews. In case you are interested  or have sleeping problems , you can find the final manuscript accepted by the editors here. If you want to access the published version, just drop me an email.

Pereira, R. H. M., Schwanen, T., & Banister, D. (2016). Distributive justice and equity in transportation. Transport Reviews, 0(0), 1–22. doi:10.1080/01441647.2016.1257660

Abstract:

Over the past decades, transport researchers and policymakers have devoted increasing attention to questions about justice and equity. Nonetheless, there is still little engagement with theories in political philosophy to frame what justice means in the context of transport policies. This paper reviews five key theories of justice (utilitarianism, libertarianism, intuitionism, Rawls’ egalitarianism, and Capability Approaches), and critically evaluates the insights they generate when applied to transport. Based on a dialogue between Rawlsian and Capability Approaches, we propose that distributive justice concerns over transport disadvantage and social exclusion should focus primarily on accessibility as a human capability. This means that, in policy evaluation, a detailed analysis of distributional effects of transport policies should consider minimum standards of accessibility to key destinations and the extent of which these policies respect individuals’ rights and prioritize disadvantaged groups, reduce inequalities of opportunities and mitigate transport externalities. A full account of justice in transportation requires a more complete understanding of accessibility than traditional approaches have been able to deliver to date.

* From paper submission (Feb 2015) to acceptance letter (Oct 2016), the whole process took 1 year and 8 months with a couple of iterations with three reviewers who were really generous with their time and detailed comments. 

Justice and ethical concerns in Energy decisions

The latest issue of Nature Energy is out. There is an interesting paper that puts together a miscellaneous of concepts from different theories in political philosophy to build an "energy justice framework centred on availability, affordability, due process, transparency and accountability, sustainability, equity and responsibility".

The authors recognize eventual conflicts between these different ideas but I think they don't make it very clear how the ethical framework they propose actually overcomes such conflicts. In any case, it's a good read. 

Thanks Tim Schwanen for the tip.

A debate with D.Harvey and Ed.Glaeser

The team at Caos Planejado (a very good Brazilian blog focused on urban economics) points out to a recent event where David Harvey and Edward Glaeser discussed the 'Economics of the Creative Economy'.

It is certainly not every day that we have this kind of debate. David Harvey is one of the most influential critical geographers with a great academic history and his writings have shaped a lot of the Marxist readings on cities. On the other corner of the ring Edward Glaeser is among the greatest urban economists nowadays and has a brilliant list of publications on a variety of issues related to urban development.

Despite ideological divergences, both are highly qualified scholars. They are also extremely polite, to a point that their disagreements always come in a gentle  sometimes even subtle way. I confess I was expecting some more blood.

My two highlights. Harvey and Glaser disagree on two particular questions that caught my attention: the connection between affordability issues and the idea of successful cities (29'-37'), and their different (normative) understandings of how property should be organized (1:04'-1:08'). Their disagreement on these two topics reflect markedly different positions in political philosophy more generally. More deeply, it shows rather different understandings of what justice means, and what should be the role of governments and markets in the pursuit for justice. 

I will stop here before you fall asleep with this post. Hope you enjoy the video.

ps. Glaser's body language reaction at 1:05' is hilarious.

Assorted Links

1. The Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning at the MIT found a great way to visualize their faculty members
   
   
2. Suprise in an Abandoned Bangkok Shopping Mall
   
   
3. You will thank me for this: How much underwear to bring on a trip
   
   
4. Prisons Are Facing Aging Populations, Too
   
   
5. Call for Papers: New Directions in Geospatial Simulation
   
   
6. Diver-less Cars With Adjustable Ethics Settings? via Karel Martens
   
   
7. The world population will not stabilize this century, says a new report that Patrick Gerland et al. published yesterday in Science.

UN 2012 population projections by continent [click on the image to enlarge it]

[image credit: Patrick Gerland et al.]