Equitable Public Transit Evacuation Planning: A Systematic Review
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Climate change, extreme weather events, and human-initiated disasters necessitate resilient approaches to emergency preparedness and evacuation planning. Previous disasters, including in North America, have revealed the inadequacy of evacuation planning that is multi-modal and inclusive of vulnerable populations who primarily rely on public transit for mobility. Consequently, research and practical tools are needed to help develop more equitable evacuation strategies using public transit.
To address this fundamental gap in evacuation planning, we conducted a systematic literature review to provide an understanding of the role of public transit in the evacuation of underserved groups. In this review, underserved populations include but are not limited to carless residents, individuals with disabilities, older adults, low-income households, and people with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). First, our review found that while substantial research has been conducted on optimizing public transit logistics, most of this literature lacks a robust integration of equity metrics to ensure that transit services adequately serve underserved populations during evacuations. Second, we found that most evacuation literature broadly categorizes underserved groups as “special needs” populations, thereby overlooking specific transportation needs and challenges faced by these groups. Finally, we found that some jurisdictions in North America still lack public-facing evacuation plans and transit considerations for those without reliable personal transportation. We provide a discussion of these findings and offer policy recommendations to strengthen equitable, multi-modal evacuation planning.
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http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 http://purl.org/coar/version/c_b1a7d7d4d402bcce http://purl.org/coar/version/c_71e4c1898caa6e32
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en