Abstract Manager

Across North America, there has been a growing awareness that the transportation system can deliver inequitable outcomes and experiences. Equity-deserving groups experience lower levels of access to jobs and healthy food options, commute longer, and are disproportionally affected by transport pollution. They are also at a higher risk of injury from traffic collisions and may experience harassment or mistreatment by fellow passengers or enforcement officers.

Many of these inequities are perpetuated, and sometimes caused, by decision-making processes at all levels of government and their agencies. The tools, metrics, and data utilized to inform decision-making favour modes less likely to be used by equity-deserving groups, and have long neglected factors such as accessibility, safety, and security, creating barriers to access activities.

To tackle these inequities, Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation (MTO) is developing a Transportation Equity Framework. The Framework includes a series of actions that will support changes to the Ministry’s knowledge, processes, and practices to fully integrate equity into its decisions. For example, MTO is exploring integrating equity into the multi-criteria analysis used for its capital prioritization framework. This will ensure Ontario’s $25.1 billion in highway investments and $61.6 billion in transit investments over the next 10 years consider equity impacts.

The presentation will focus on lessons learned from developing MTO’s Transportation Equity Framework, specifically related to how MTO is able to leverage support from decision-makers, institutionalize the concept of equity, build knowledge on the topic, and operationalize the Framework. These lessons learned will be valuable for practitioners at other levels of government and their agencies.