Transport and equity in Latin America: a critical review of socially oriented accessibility assessments*

ABSTRACT

A growing concern for mobility-related social inclusion and equity is evident from both academic research and planning best practices. Scholarly research promotes accessibility as the main aim of transport planning, assuming it as the evaluative approach that better conveys how mobility contributes to individuals' well-being and participation in social life. Accessibility can be crucial to address the socio-spatial inequalities that characterise manifold settings across the world. Amongst them, Latin American countries have been keen in tackling such imbalances through mobility-related interventions, as the renowned cases of Curitiba, Medellin and Bogotá show. The widespread interest in mobility as both a cause and effect of social disparities has generated an increasing stream of work that examines Latin American settings through the lenses of accessibility. This paper aims at critically reviewing the growing scholarly works that, providing accessibility-based evaluations, has examined issues of transport and equity in Latin America. Proposing a novel conceptual framework that considers the underlying ethical stance, components of accessibility and implications for planning and policy, this work examines what approaches, features and indicators are present in the current literature, as well as what settings have been taken into consideration by scholarly research. Moreover, the review has an explicit operational interest, to define what indicators are relevant or missing to assess accessibility in the light of social concerns, as well as to consider the current and potential implications that such research findings have on transport planning and policy. The review highlights how a growing but still limited body of work has examined transport and equity in Latin America, suggesting academic, technical and operational avenues to enhance theoretical and practical approaches to the issue.     

Software-in-the-loop development and validation of a Cornering Brake Control logic

In this article, a logic for vehicle dynamics control during partial braking while turning a corner is presented, which only requires knowledge of the instantaneous speed of the four wheels. For this reason, the proposed control algorithm can be adopted on all ABS equipped cars. A scheme of the simulation program for logic validation is described, which is constituted by a loop of software models of the principal vehicle subsystems which are singly illustrated. The proposed logic has been tested both in closed and open-loop maneuvers. The results are provided in the form of time histories of the principal analyzed quantities. The analysis of the results confirms the goodness of the proposed control strategy.     

A Topological Method to Choose Optimal Solutions after Solving the Multi-criteria Urban Road Network Design Problem

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Estimating demand variables of maritime container transport: An aggregate procedure for the Mediterranean area

Demand variables of maritime container transport (throughput, transhipment and origin–destination flows) may be estimated with freight demand models. As their parameters generally vary both in time and space, models may not be transferable to geographical areas and time periods differing from that for which they are calibrated.     

A model system for the ex-ante assessment of city logistics measures

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