Geography PHD student Grey Shipman receives the G. Herbert Stout Award and presented at NC GIS conference next week on March 9th. Below is his presentation abstract:
Public transportation can enable individuals without vehicles to access improved employment opportunities, essential services, and other amenities. The cost of owning and maintaining a vehicle can be prohibitively expensive. A key part of designing and operating public transportation is determining how to allocate transportation resources across a network. Determining the extent to which a public transportation system meets the demands of residents is important for creating equitable outcomes. This research applies a transportation equity analysis modified from Jiao & Dillivan’s (2013) research to Chapel Hill, NC, to measure how well Chapel Hill Transit is meeting the transportation needs of its residents. This methodology calculates z-scores for public transportation demand and supply, which are them combined to show gaps and incongruence between the two. This analysis provides a relative transportation equity score at the Census block group level, thus allowing comparisons to be drawn between different areas within Chapel Hill. This analysis can play a role in helping transportation officials identify areas that may need increased investment in transportation services and infrastructure.
