Strategy

Why Philosophers Reject 'Equity' and What It Means for Transport Leaders

In recent years, transport professionals have commonly used the term ‘equity’. I have previously written about how the language we use alienates significant parts of the population, and equity is one of those terms. However, I was unaware that left-wing philosophers also widely disliked it. This blog is from Joseph Heath, a professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto, who explains why we may want to rethink our use of the word ‘equity’.

Key Takeaways

• The standing on boxes meme is assumed to provide a correct and uncontroversial definition of equity and a refutation of equality as a moral ideal.
• The meme represents the undoing of practically everything philosophers have been trying to achieve in debates over equality and social justice for the past half-century.
• The meme captures how people thought about equality issues until the late 1960s, before philosophers agreed that the opportunity/outcome distinction was neither useful nor coherent.
• Traditionally, “equity” has had a less precise sense than “equality.”
• Despite being unequal, two pay packages may be equitable because not all work is of equal value.
• This meme saddled Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) with an extremely strict, controversial conception of equality (i.e. outcome), somewhere to the left of the most left-wing view defended by left-wing philosophers.
• The most basic reason for caring about equality is our desire to neutralise the effects of bad luck. It is not that everyone should get the same outcome, but that we should not allow unchosen differences between persons to determine outcomes.
• This ‘luck’ egalitarianism was based on the perception that we had overcome a significant error in thinking about equality. This meme turned back the clock by 50 years.

Comment

So what does this mean for transport leaders?

• We should probably reconsider using the term equity. It is divisive and would not stand up to serious scrutiny.
• When considering ‘equality’ issues within transport, we need to think broadly about what we are trying to equalise, not narrowly focus on one solution. For example, if cheaper fares mean we have fewer public transport services and more car dependency, which inflicts higher costs on lower-income households, does it deliver an equal outcome?
• Households on lower incomes tend to live where housing is cheaper. These areas are often where transport is poorest and amenities, such as jobs, are further away. To get better equality outcomes, shouldn't we focus on improving mobility AND the location of amenities, i.e accessibility?
• Transport is only one factor in the equality equation and is usually (but not always) much less important than income, employment, housing, education and health services. Governments should take a holistic view to set priorities for the outcomes they are trying to achieve.
• For example, does increasing transport subsidies deliver a better outcome than providing people with housing subsidies so they can live nearer to work and other amenities and lower their transport costs (and improve the quality of their life through lower commute times)?
• Is increasing inequality an issue if it is due to the choices people make? For example, if people choose to drive when they can access good alternatives, is it unequal to impose higher costs on the drivers, e.g. through paid parking, distance-based charges or higher fuel taxes?

What next?

Do you need to rethink ‘equity’?

Governance and Sustainability

Beyond Technology: The Governance Challenge of Decarbonising Road Freight

When discussing the best way of decarbonising road freight, there is always a lot of focus on which technology to use (batteries, hydrogen or sustainable fuels). However, there is minimal discussion on the regulation around the transition. Therefore, I was interested in this research into road freight decarbonisation governance in Canada that spoke to the regulators to get their perspective.

Key Takeaways

• The public sector is responsible for policy decisions that impact road freight, such as modes of transport, the location and development of industrial lands.
• Policies within each area impact the others. For example, shifts from one mode (e.g., roads) to another (e.g., rail) can impact system-wide emissions and land use patterns (e.g., through the siting of warehouses).

Key findings and opportunities for improving governance from the research include:

• Responsibility for road freight is distributed across government departments and areas of expertise.
• Opportunity: Explicitly couple road freight and decarbonisation in cross-departmental projects.
• Existing tools to manage road freight are limited and unstructured.
• Opportunity: Optimise the use of existing infrastructure, tools, and strategies, and improve data collection and sharing for road freight.
• There are recurring challenges to smooth intergovernmental collaboration, though these are not seen as insurmountable.
• Opportunity: Realign governance (roles, accountabilities) between all levels of government to reflect the transboundary nature of road freight.
• Respondents identified a range of tools and strategies that could be introduced and implemented to improve goods movement.
• Opportunity: Introduce pricing mechanisms for road freight and integrate land use and transport solutions (e.g., freight villages).

Comment

Most countries' strategies for decarbonising freight include a significant increase in freight rail. However, most countries struggle to achieve this, and I suspect governance is the main reason.

What next?

How good is your freight governance? Do any of the opportunities in the paper apply where you are?

Strategic Planning

Delhi's Public Transport Revolution: Rethinking Bus Services for 30 Million People

Delhi already has a population of over 30 million, and vehicle registrations are expected to more than double by 2050. One pillar of Delhi’s plans to tackle this challenge is to improve its bus services. This paper describes how it is going about it.

Key Takeaways

• The city has announced plans to purchase over 2000 electric midi-buses, not simply as a replacement for existing buses but as an opportunity to rethink its bus services.
• Nearly 31% of the land in Delhi’s built-up areas lies outside a 500m walkable range of public transport services.
• Nearly 60% of trips in Delhi are under 4 km, and 80% are below 6 km, creating a need for neighbourhood-level services.
• Key issues with current services are insufficient connectivity, overcrowding, service gaps, underperforming routes, and a lack of targeted solutions.
• The key parameters for the Neighbourhood Buses are:

1. Route length: Approximately 10 km per route.

2. Frequency: Buses will run every 5 to 10 minutes, ensuring minimal wait times.

3. Distinct identification: Buses will feature special branding to make them easy to recognise and distinguish from other public transit options.

4. Integration with high-capacity transit: Free transfers between Neighbourhood Buses and major high-capacity public transport systems, such as the metro, will promote seamless travel across modes.

5. Quality of ride: Emphasis on cleanliness, comfort, and accessibility to ensure a high-quality transit experience for all passengers.

• The city is exploring using artificial intelligence and big data analytics to develop a comprehensive travel demand model.

What next?

Are your neighbourhood services meeting the needs of residents? Are you enabling seamless transfers between modes?

Leadership

Tough Realities Every Transport Leader Needs to Face

The transport industry must address many challenges to deliver more effectively for our communities. Below are 10 issues I see regularly being raised. Most transport entities will not have all of these issues, but I suspect most have more than just a few.

The 10 Critical Challenges

1. Workforce Demographics Crisis: We face an imminent wave of retirements and significant recruitment difficulties. Many transport careers have lost their appeal to younger generations, creating a dangerous talent gap.
2. Customer Blindness: Too many transport agencies remain fixated on operational convenience or engineering preferences rather than designing services around actual customer needs and experiences.
3. Deteriorating Infrastructure: Critical assets, including fleet vehicles, tracks, and facilities, have been allowed to deteriorate to unacceptable levels, directly undermining performance while driving up maintenance costs.
4. Entrenched Silos: Success in today's environment demands unprecedented collaboration both internally and with external partners, yet departmental silos continue to obstruct progress and innovation.
5. Employee Engagement Deficit: Staff satisfaction consistently ranks below other industries, signalling fundamental problems in how we manage, motivate, and develop our people.
6. Diversity and Inclusion Failures: The sector remains overwhelmingly male-dominated with workplace cultures that often discourage female participation and advancement, depriving us of vital talent and perspectives.
7. Financial Management Weaknesses: We struggle with both cost control and revenue generation, too quickly asking for larger subsidies rather than pursuing operational excellence and commercial opportunities.
8. Resistance to Learning: Many organisations repeatedly make the same mistakes, failing to implement effective systems for continuous improvement or knowledge transfer from peers.
9. Misaligned Priorities: Resources continue flowing to suboptimal projects and policies, including the persistent myth that additional highway lanes will meaningfully reduce congestion.
10. Project Execution Gaps: From conception through delivery, transport infrastructure projects routinely exceed budgets and timelines, revealing systemic weaknesses in project management capabilities.

What Next?

Which of these challenges resonates most with your organisation? Do you have robust, realistic plans to address them?

Quick Links

Interesting articles and papers I have come across this week:

Will robotaxis replace private car ownership? There is a wide range of views on what impact Autonomous Vehicles will have on transport systems, with some people predicting it will see the end of private vehicle ownership. Andrew Miller explains in this changing lanes newsletter why he thinks there will still be private cars.

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​What is the potential of E-cargo bikes? This research from the UK indicates that for some people, at certain life stages, e-cargo bikes represent a realistic and desirable form of mobility.

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​Why do we keep seeing transport project costs and timelines blow out? This paper looked at 10 behavioural biases in project management, including strategic misrepresentation, uniqueness bias and availability bias.

Blog

Three Changes That Could Save Billions in Wasted Transport Spending

My blog this week examined three changes to transport governance that, by changing how infrastructure agencies operate, could save billions in wasted transport spending.

Innovation

The Waiting Experience: Reimagining Bus Stops for Higher Ridership

This research paper examines the importance of the design and quality of bus stops in encouraging people to use bus services and includes some interesting bus stop designs from around the world.

Tool

From Theory to Calculation: Making Induced Demand Measurable

How do we build induced demand into our transport models? The National Centre for Sustainable Transport in the United States developed a calculator.