Fairness in Transport

Dear Colleagues,

Fairness in transport is often an important desired outcome of transport systems and developments (in public transport, self-driving cars, vehicle sharing and employment in transport, etc.). However, both the concept and how to achieve it are poorly understood. This Special Issue seeks high-quality theoretical, policy, and empirical papers that will progress our understanding of fairness and how to move towards fairer, sustainable transport systems. Papers may be related to any aspect of fairness in transport, and those related to gender are particularly welcomed.

Fairness affects different groups and subgroups and plays out differently in various circumstances and types of transport. For instance, in many countries, women—and some men—with childcare responsibilities have systematically shorter commuting times than other groups, due partly to balancing time-constrained multiple journies related to childcare, household responsibilities, and employment. This affects job opportunities and choices, access to services, etc. It has been suggested that the planning and delivery of transport services usually do not adequately take these into account. Another issue is that traditionally motor vehicles have been modelled on the general physicality of an ‘average’ man, which creates problems in terms of seating, posture, and the seatbelt safety for most women as reflected in safety and other statistics. Similarly self-driving cars, or autonomous vehicles, may use algorithms based on databases which reflect past biases in car use rather than fairness across the potential population of users. Further, in terms of jobs, women account for less than a quarter of the work force in the transport sector in Europe, affecting and reflecting employment equality and diversity. Each of these, and many other issues affect the fairness of transport.

The Special Issue welcomes conceptual and empirical papers that deal with any aspect of fairness in transport, including:

• How do concepts of ‘equality of opportunities’ and ‘equality of outcomes’ lead to different transport policies?
• How do transport systems deal with procedural fairness (an example being balancing cheaper fares for some groups, such as children, but not others)?
• Notions of fairness are often linked to concepts of justice, equity, human rights and ethics, so how can these be better applied to transport and what wider justice issues should be considered when developing fairer transport systems?
• How do issues of fairness influence different modes and types of transport (e.g., public transport, autonomous vehicles, bicycle or car sharing), or employment in transport?
• Which groups in society are particularly affected by issues of fairness in transport?
• What policies are needed to help achieve greater fairness in transport and for whom?

Prof. Ronald McQuaid
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• Fairness in transport
• Justice
• Employment
• Gender
• Public transport
• Autonomous vehicles