Browsing by Subject "Equity"
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Item Accommodating disability : barriers and burdens of a movement toward equity in an equality-based justice system(2019-02-06) Bird, Christine Catherine; Sparrow, Bartholomew H., 1959-; Tulis, Jeffrey KSocial movements can choose between emphasizing a sameness-based equality narrative or alternatively, a difference-based equity narrative. The sameness narrative emphasizes how the marginalized group represented by the social movement is not different from mainstream society and deserves equal treatment. The difference narrative allows the movement to leverage its different attributes to seek accommodation within mainstream society by asserting principles of equity. This narrative, by contrast, emphasizes how the marginalized group represented by the social movement is deserving of inclusion in society, but nonetheless requires affirmative accommodation for their differences. The disability rights movement is an equity-based movement because it requires an affirmative accommodation provision. If a group requiring accommodation seeks only to be treated equally to their counterparts, the unique experiences and needs of the individuals requiring accommodation cannot be met. In order to demonstrate this point, I look to the difficulties of obtain reasonable accommodation under disability policy in the United States.Item Austin, Texas parkland active transportation accessibility : a GIS network analyst based approach(2018-05) Rajaeian, Arman; Sciara, Gian-Claudia; Karner, AlexThis report measures pedestrian and bicyclist accessibility to parklands in Austin, Texas. An overview of current parkland and active transportation planning practices in Austin is given to properly set the scope of study. Past literature regarding the measurement of spatial accessibility is reviewed to formulate a methodology with which to conduct the analysis. In particular, a framework is presented to create formalized pedestrian and bicyclist network datasets within ArcMap’s Network Analyst. Using these specialized network datasets, accessibility measures are calculated using origin destination travel between census block groups and parklands within Austin. From these calculated accessibility measures, levels of equity amongst various socioeconomic groups are studied in order to ascertain if there are any discrepancies between different groups level of access to parklands and availability of active transportation infrastructure. Findings indicate that no significant discrepancy in levels of access to parklands exist between socioeconomic groups studied, pointing to an equitable environment for Austin citizens.Item Bold, brave & essential : investigating the intersections of DEAI and educational programing at the Baltimore Museum of Art(2022-05-05) Fejeran, Zoë Renée; Bain, ChristinaThis research presents the Baltimore Museum of Art as a timely case study during the years 2020 and 2021. Applying the framework of critical theory, this study investigates one museum’s mission to successfully embed diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion into the many facets of their museum operations. Located in Baltimore, Maryland, the museum has made a public commitment to be a leader in museum relevancy and community engagement. As such, educational programming and resources created by the museum are explored as an integral mechanism for this successful integration: prioritizing multi-vocal narratives and honoring lived experiences of their diverse community. Research conducted throughout this study revealed, across all considered data, three overarching themes as a result of the unique relationship between the challenges and opportunities that the Baltimore Museum of Art faced in 2020-2021, their DEAI initiatives, and the museum’s education department. The emergent themes expressed: an integral relationship between the BMA’s education department and the success of their DEAI initiatives, and increase in online resources, and substantial improvements of the diversity of objects and histories represented within the BMA’s exhibitions, programming and resources. While this case study highlights a singular arts institution, the discoveries therein offer a platform for further research into lasting, and necessary efforts to ensure museums remain meaningful, relevant and culturally inclusive institutions.Item Bus network redesigns in medium-sized cities : an equity evaluation on supermarket accessibility(2021-07-30) McGee, Jordan Kathleen; Karner, Alex; Wegmann, JakeTransit agencies across the country are redesigning their bus network for the first time in several decades in order to increase ridership and the attractiveness of the system. The reallocation of resources and resulting service cuts raise equity concerns. This report calculates and evaluates equity-focused performance measurements related to supermarket accessibility before and after the bus network redesigns in the medium-sized cities of Austin, Columbus and Indianapolis. The performance measures related to grocery store accessibility significantly improved under Columbus’ bus network redesign and appeared equitable. The measures for Indianapolis largely worsened, but people of color equitably fared better than white residents. Austin’s bus network redesign had mixed performance and equity results for grocery store accessibility. On average, the redesigns of the three bus networks did not raise significant equity concerns for grocery store accessibility.Item Capitalizing diversity : diversity-equity-inclusivity epistemologies in the funding structures of film nonprofits(2023-05-04) Wold, Hannah Marie; Perren, Alisa; Mallapragada, MadhaviThis thesis centers regional American film nonprofits to chart how shifting valuations of a racialized concept of diversity among stakeholders have impacted the ways that race is created, signaled, commodified, and resourced in these organizations. This project creates an ontology of regional American film nonprofits that centers their nonprofit structures, their year-round activities, and their thoroughly localized programming, financing, and audiences. This lens allows for an analysis of these organizations as embedded in and responsive to thoroughly American regional political contexts, a framing that I employ to emphasize the ways that race is constructed, negotiated, and lived on the basis of the local. I approach this topic by centering the recent shift towards Diversity-Equity-Inclusivity models in public and private American granting bodies to argue for a dialectic construction and commodification of race that occurs between film nonprofits and their stakeholders. This research is situated at the nexus of film festival and arthouse studies, critical race theory, and nonprofit studies, and employs discourse and paratextual analysis, an analysis of financial and sector reports, surveys, interviews, and autoethnography to chart my findings. This thesis is structured like an inverted pyramid, such that each successive chapter moves from the macro to the meso to the micro. As such, Chapter One begins by mapping the field of regional American film nonprofits, stressing their year-round programming that combines the functions of arthouse and film festival, their nonprofit structures, and their diverse geographies. Chapter Two centers the stakeholder relationship between grant makers and film nonprofits to demonstrate the creation of a shared semiotics of Diversity-Equity-Inclusivity that comes to bear on the ways that race is constructed within film nonprofit spaces. Chapter Three further hones this focus by analyzing racialized programming practices within nonprofit film festivals, a phenomenon that results in the ambivalent commodification of race. Finally, Chapter Four is situated at a micro-level of analysis by exploring trends within specific organizations as well as individual agency expressed in interviews with employees at a regional film nonprofit. Ultimately, this research reveals just one historical moment within broader and continuing processes of racial formation in media and beyond.Item Climate change planning & action in the #CapitalofCapital : evaluating Miami’s capacity for climate justice(2023-04-19) Aitken, Sophia Elena; Lieberknecht, Katherine E.This Masters Report analyzes the goals and objectives of the network of climate plans for the City of Miami. These plans are contextualized within the city’s current economic, political, and social reality. Current events including real estate development, city branding, economic growth, and gentrification are contrasted with the plan analysis to develop a broad understanding of the factors influencing commitments to climate resilience. Using a justice framework, the report takes these factors and evaluates the city’s capacity for equitable climate resilience. This method of analysis recognizes how culture, capital, and power influence commitments to equity and reflect capacity for climate justice.Item Composting opportunities for the city of Austin(2011-12) Mulholland, Katie Jean; Dooling, Sarah; Kahn, Terry DComposting is commonly thought of as practices urban residents can do as part of living sustainably in cities. However, it is also an effective strategy cities can reduce landfilling and move towards Zero Waste. A number of North American cities have already developed residential curbside composting programs, which collect and processes yard and food waste to create compost. The city of Austin is in the process of passing an Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan as a means of working towards its Zero Waste goal. Included in this plan is the charge to begin creating a residential composting pilot. To assist in these efforts, I researched the opportunities the City of Austin has for developing a residential composting program. Using a framework of sustainability, I focus on how the city can create a program that addresses issues of equity. Through interviews with representatives of cities with composting programs and local stakeholders, I identify a number of best practices and recommendations. These interviews also outline methods to address equity through increasing outreach, participation, access to the final compost product as well as incorporating input into program design. First, I begin with a brief history of waste management to examine the social drivers that prompt the creation of waste diversion programs. Then, I identify variables that influence individual behaviors with a review of the consumer behavior literature. Next, I provide an overview of what is currently happening in Austin and explain my organizing framework of sustainability. After outlining my methods, I present the findings of my interviews. Then, I discuss eight proposals the City of Austin could use to develop its residential composting program. Lastly, I conclude by identifying opportunities for future research.Item The contradictions of smart growth: transit-oriented development, affordable housing and community vision - the case of the Lamar/Justin Lane TOD, Austin, Texas(2014-08) Asuncion, Kendal Kawaihonaokeamahaoke; Sletto, BjørnSmart Growth is a comprehensive approach to planning that aims to shape more compact and well-connected communities across the United States. Among its principles are leveraging existing infrastructure, developing around transit, providing a mix of housing types and price ranges, and increasing community participation in the planning process. However, research suggests the comprehensive approach at times obscures potential tensions between these principles, in particular when Smart Growth principles are applied to a specific property. This is the case in Austin, Texas’ Lamar/Justin Lane TOD, where the City of Austin is currently evaluating development scenarios for a publicly-owned 5.6 acre parcel located within the TOD area. How equity and access is addressed in Smart Growth comes to fore in conversations between the City and affluent, neighborhood residents. This report examines the history of Smart Growth, reviews its implementation in cities across the U.S., and considers how the City of Austin may learn from other cities.Item Covered in ads : the equity implications of advertisement-funded transit infrastructure(2023-05-04) Butcher, Victor Allan; Rosenbloom, Sandra; Karner, AlexThis report explores a ubiquitous yet underexplored way of funding, installing, and maintaining public transportation infrastructure: public-private-partnerships between municipalities and private advertising firms, focusing on the equity implications of such partnerships for existing transit riders and historically disadvantaged groups. Such partnerships, such as Los Angeles, California’s first advertisement-based bus stop shelter program, have resulted in negative equity outcomes. In Los Angeles, researchers found that the advertising partner had placed the majority of shelters in wealthier, whiter areas of the city, rather than areas of high transit ridership. This report then applies and expands upon the methods used by researchers in the Los Angeles context to the two bus stop improvement programs in Denver, Colorado. The analysis compares the differences in equity outcomes between the city/county’s advertisement-based program and the transit operator’s ridership-focused program. I find that Denver’s advertisement-based bus stop improvement program has allowed advertisers to place shelters in wealthier, whiter areas of Denver and that the shelters placed by the local transit operator serve far more transit riders than the advertisement-based program. Municipalities should define their equity goals when crafting partnerships with advertising firms and should develop strong mitigation measures against the principal-agent problem that arises with such partnerships.Item Decolonizing leadership : presidents and/or chief executive officers of color, institutions of higher education, and transformative leadership(2023-04-21) Silva, Jesse, Ed. D.; Urrieta, Luis; Bukoski, Beth Em; Burnette, Colette Pierce; Garcia, Gina Ann; Reddick, RichardThe purpose of this study is to explore race, presidents and/or chief executive officers of institutions of higher education, and conceptualization of leadership, and practices for advancing racial equity. The qualitative multiple case study used a comparative cross-case analysis and explored phenomenological conceptualization of leadership approaches and practices of presidents and/or chief executive officers of color of Minority Serving Institutions for advancing racial equity and in response to major racial incidents that impact higher education. The multiple cross case study The study used a subjectivist epistemological orientation and integrated theoretical perspective that includes critical race theory, theory of racialized organizations, and decolonial theory. The study was guided using three research questions: 1) How do presidents and/or chief executive officers of color conceptualize leadership and apply leadership practices for advancing racial equity at Minority Serving Institutions?, 2) How do presidents and/or chief executive officers of color’s experiences at Minority Serving Institutions influence their leadership and practices for advancing racial equity?, and 3) How do presidents of color of Minority Serving Institutions understand and respond to current major historical racial incidents that impact higher education? The emergent themes from this study include: 1) Minority Serving Institutions as third space sites, 2) racial equity for all through interest convergence, and 3) transformative community cultural wealth and knowledge. Key findings from within cases show that presidents and/or executive leaders of color vary in their conceptualization of leadership and application of leadership practices for advancing racial equity and Minority Serving Institution influence their leadership and practices for advancing racial equity. This study added to the scholarship on how presidents and/or chief executive officers of color conceptualize and enact leadership to advance racial equity in Minority Serving Institutions for historically underrepresented and/or marginalized communities of color.Item Demystifying the process : the selection of receiving schools in intra-district performance-based school choice(2015-05) Lee, William Christopher, active 21st century; Holme, Jennifer Jellison; Cantu, Norma; Gooden, Mark A; Heilig, Julian V; McCray, TaliaAlthough intra-district performance-based school choice as featured in NCLB and state laws has existed for over a decade, scant attention has been devoted to the study of how the policies and programs are operated by school districts. Policymakers and education practitioners have adopted performance-based school choice to address school achievement disparities, yet it is currently unclear if federal and state mandated choice programs are being managed with fidelity to the egalitarian design of the policy. Few researchers have examined whether these policies achieve their specified goals of increasing access to high performing schools for students residentially assigned to underperforming locations. This study utilizes a qualitative comparative case study design that contrasts school choice implementation in two large, socioeconomically, racially, and ethnically diverse school districts in the state of Texas. As the primary method of data collection, semi-structured interviews were conducted with: school district superintendents, school board members, choice program administrators, principals, community leaders, and parents. This study contributes to the school choice research literature through analyzing program operations, community influence in policy implementation, and the resulting implications for access and equity. The study concludes with policy recommendations to ensure maximum advantage to the students that school choice is designed to benefit.Item Equitable access to green space : management strategies in San Diego California and Austin Texas(2014-12) Steverson, Jennifer; Dooling, SarahThis report is focused on the implementation strategies used by municipal governments to provision communities in San Diego California and Austin Texas with public parks. Green space is an important amenity in urban areas that improves the quality of life for residents. Low income who experience sustained mental fatigue from the stress associated with acquiring basic necessities may experience stress alleviation in vegetated environments. Comprehensive planning documents, city budgets and interviews with parks department employees were used to investigate the methods used to ensure equitable access to public parks in urban areas. Digital cartography was used to measure the proximity to green space at the city and neighborhood scale. Green space was broadly defined to include public parks, conserved lands, community gardens, greenways, and school yards. This is in keeping with the comprehensive plans of both cities.Item Equity evaluation in HUD disaster recovery programs(2022-08-10) Beaty, Sidney Talbott; Mueller, Elizabeth J.; Wong, Patrick, 1956-Natural disasters are occurring with increasing frequency and intensity. Low-income residents of color are more likely to live in areas impacted by disasters and often have reduced capacity to prepare for, cope with, and recover from disasters. The federal government, which provides billions of dollars for disaster recovery through a patchwork of federal programs, does not consistently administer programs in an equitable manner. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) administers the primary sources of funding for long-term disaster recovery and resiliency, the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) and Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) programs. The Fair Housing Act and other federal provisions require HUD and its grantees to administer disaster recovery funding in a nondiscriminatory manner. However, many CDBG-DR and CDBG-MIT programs have been accused of failing to provide funding to the areas that need it most. This paper examines the CDBG-DR and CDBG-MIT programs in Texas following Hurricanes Ike and Harvey through an equity framework that considers contextual, procedural, and distributive equity. It concludes with recommendations for HUD and Congress based on the Texas cases that will improve equitable outcomes for CDBG-DR and CDBG-MIT programs. The recommendations focus on the need for a more stable federal framework and stronger requirements for measurements of community needs and program impacts.Item Evaluating strategies, opportunities, and tensions for implementing green stormwater infrastructure at the site scale(2022-05-10) La Bissoniere, Bryan Paul; Faust, Kasey M.; Lieberknecht, Katherine; Passalacqua, PaolaGreen stormwater infrastructure (GSI) is increasingly relied upon to improve the negative hydrologic and ecological impacts of urban development. Site scale strategies are often dependent on owners to adopt, manage, and fund. Although cities commonly offer rebate incentives, adoption remains correlated to high income residents and single-family homeowners. Renters unable to control property decisions, especially in multifamily apartments, are left behind by current programs that benefit owner occupied properties. Similarly, reductions to property fees offered for adoption provide little incentive to rental property owners who pass costs onto renters. Important to this conversation is that flood risk falls disproportionately on low-income residents and multifamily apartments, making the geography of GSI adoption misaligned with flood risk. At best, current strategies lead to inefficient use of funds with limited impact, while at worst, the strategies deepen hydrologic and financial inequalities. This study investigates the performance of current untargeted rain cistern implementation strategies’ performance relative to strategies that integrate cisterns for multifamily apartments, and a biofiltration pond. Survey data informs the renter and owner adoption rates used in this model. Multifamily scenarios are investigated under different impervious cover percentages, and increasing precipitation intensities, inquiring performance insight to future development and climate change projections. To answer these pressing questions, a Gridded Surface Subsurface Hydrologic Analysis (GSSHA) model is used to simulate total runoff volume and peak discharge rate for a sub catchment in Austin, TX. Unsurprisingly, a general trend of decreasing performance under increasing precipitation intensity was seen for all GSI. Key results show reductions of total runoff for single-family scenarios range between 0-9%. The multifamily strategy, with a 16,000-gallon cistern, reduced total runoff volume 33-18% from the median to 25-year storm. Increasing impervious cover from 50 to 60% for the 16,000- gallon cistern multifamily scenario reduced total runoff volume to 35-24%. The results show integrating cisterns for multifamily apartments can lead to better outcomes under median storm intensities, increasing storm intensities, and denser urban development. This study contributes to the current body of knowledge and practice by recommending policy changes and suggesting new multifamily strategies absent from the literature that achieve improved results.Item Examining the impacts of a vehicle miles traveled fee for daily weekday travel : a case study of Oregon(2022-05-03) Moore, Michael Alexander; Walton, C. Michael; Machemehl, Randy B.; Zhang, Zhanmin; Waxman, AndrewMileage-based taxes have been suggested as a long-term solution for collecting fees from highway users. Clustering was used to group respondents to an Oregon traveler survey based on daily travel characteristics. State fuel tax and equivalent VMT taxes are assessed to evaluate the change in revenue associated with a switch to a VMT tax structure and potential impacts upon respondent groups. The difference in revenues were evaluated on a per trip, daily trip, and annual basis. Results show that there is little difference in yearly revenues associated with a switch to VMT fee, with all user groups seeing less than 5% increase compared to fuel tax. The VMT fee is found to be marginally more regressive than the fuel tax. Relative to urban households, rural households were less impacted than urban households resulting from a switch to a VMT fee. Alternative fee structures were developed based on state gas tax revenue distribution and yielded results that when accounting for demand responses showed improvements in the regressivity of the VMT fee.Item Getting to work on time : a proposed time-equitable tolling scheme(2017-05) Helsel, John Walter; Boyles, Stephen David, 1982-; Duthie, JenniferDynamic tolls present an opportunity for municipalities to eliminate congested roadways and fund infrastructure. Known variously as congestion pricing or value pricing and implemented through dynamically priced toll lanes and cordon charges, planners have tried to create free flowing conditions by charging higher prices for travelers who wish to travel in the middle of the peak period. Because these tolls vary in response to demand, travelers are forced to more explicitly consider the cost of travel and so may choose to forgo it entirely or to shift the time of travel for trips that are less important. The imposition of tolls that regulate travel along a public highway through the use of a monetary fee raises worries of inequity. This thesis is thematically divided into two projects. The first is a qualitative investigation into equity. The objective of this discussion is to provide a framework for why we value equity in order to explain whether new policies (without established legal guidance) are inequitable. This explicitly normative discussion draws on work by the philosopher John Rawls to argue that equity concerns in transportation are primarily rooted in a desire to respect all travelers equally and that time poverty ought to be considered in policy-making in the same ways that income poverty already is. I then argue that tolling schemes (by which I mean any structured description of a time-varying toll) that produce time-poverty among poorer travelers ought to be examined as a potential equity concern. The second project is the application of the qualitative equity investigation to a particular implementation of a time-varying toll in the Vickrey bottleneck model to examine whether it raises equity concerns. To achieve this end, I selected an analytically tractable example of the Vickrey bottleneck that eliminates congestion through targeting each traveler’s value of time. I compare and contrast the cost burdens of a no-toll, system optimal toll, and what I will call a “time-equitable” toll on homogeneous and heterogeneous traveler groups. I will show that the time-equitable toll is able to eliminate congestion while creating equitable travel patterns amongst traveler groups.Item Impact of Power Outages Depends on Who Loses It: Equity-Informed Grid Resilience Planning(2023-10-06) Hasenbein, John J.; Kutanoglu, Erhan; Toplu-Tutay, GizemThis research presents a novel approach for enhancing power grid resilience with a focus on social equity in light of increasing natural disasters. We recognize that natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods can disproportionately affect disadvantaged communities, exacerbating existing disparities. Our research aims to bridge this gap by integrating tailored equity metrics into resilience planning. Our methodology utilizes a two-stage stochastic optimization model for hurricane-induced flood mitigation, which optimizes substation hardening and power flow decisions. The goal of this model is to minimize both the expected load shed and the expected well-being loss metrics of socially vulnerable communities (affected population and duration of loss) in the aftermath of flooding. We explore the trade-off between these objectives. What sets our research apart is the integration of realistic flood scenario generation, a large-scale synthetic power grid of Texas, and multiple methodologies in resource allocation, community impact modeling, power flow modeling, and equity metric development, as well as comprehensive computational experiments. The findings highlight the importance of the composite objective function in altering power flow decisions to prioritize electricity provision and save communities in disadvantaged areas even without investing in substation hardening (i.e., just managing load shedding with more attention to such vulnerabilities). The results also quantify the equity and load shed benefits of substation hardening as a function of the investment budget with a parameterized analysis. With an attention to equity, power outages increase in nonvulnerable communities — a trade-off made to mitigate well-being loss in the most vulnerable areas. Notably, more attention to equity provides a lower or equal number of people saved per 1 MW increase in the load shed, underscoring the concept of diminishing returns. Our findings highlight the importance of strategically allocating a limited budget and consistently prioritizing the hardening of substations serving more vulnerable populations. We further explore a justice model inspired by the government’s Justice40 initiative but find it less effective than our equity-informed models at preventing well-being loss. Our findings offer valuable insights for policymakers, grid operators, and utilities striving for a more resilient and equitable power grid. We believe that our research will not only contribute to equitable power grid resilience but also provide practical solutions to address the pressing challenges posed by climate change and natural disasters.Item Improved urban extreme weather simulation by capturing urban heterogeneity(2023-08-11) Fung, Kwun Yip; Yang, Zong-liang; Niyogi, Dev; Banner, Jay L.; Jackson, Charles S.; Vizy, Edward K.The current observations clearly indicate a world undergoing climate change, marked by increased frequency and intensity of heat waves and heavy rainfall events since 1950. The repercussions of extreme weather in urban settings are highly variable due to the diverse environments present. These risks will disproportionately affect vulnerable populations, making it essential to study the effects of urban heterogeneity on extreme weather. This dissertation is structured into three main sections. 1. Methodology Development: The first section delves into various machine learning techniques and urban datasets to produce a precise Local Climate Zone (LCZ) map. The LCZ classification, which divides urban areas into 10 classes, aids in capturing urban heterogeneity. The random forest classifier is highlighted as producing an accurate and high-resolution output in a short timeframe. Key factors governing classification accuracy are building height and imperviousness. Building height improves the accuracy of high-rise classes, while the imperviousness dataset enhances the accuracy of low-rise classes. The refined LCZ map contributes to more accurate computational simulations of urban heterogeneity. 2. Enhancing Tropical Cyclone Simulations: The second section focuses on evaluating improvements in tropical cyclone simulations by integrating LCZ to capture urban heterogeneity. While LCZ has proven beneficial for simulating temperature, wind, humidity, and non-hurricane rainfall, its impact during tropical cyclones has been underexplored. Simulation experiments, when compared with observations, demonstrate that incorporating LCZ in urban areas enhances the accuracy of 10-m wind, 2-m temperature, land surface temperature, and rainfall hotspot locations. This underscores the significance of considering urban heterogeneity when predicting and preparing for tropical cyclones. 3. Equitable Urban Overheating Mitigation: The third section investigates the efficacy of diverse urban overheating mitigation strategies, while also addressing equity concerns. Simulations of cool roofs, green roofs, and urban trees during five heatwave events reveal that the urban trees strategy is most effective in achieving equity by cooling down vulnerable neighborhoods in Houston. This study emphasizes the necessity of factoring in city layouts and demographics to develop equitable solutions. Overall, this dissertation addresses the impacts of urban heterogeneity on extreme weather comprehensively, outlining methodologies for accurate representation, improvements in tropical cyclone simulations, and the importance of equitable urban overheating mitigation strategies.Item Mitigating the impacts of fare increases on low-income transit-dependent populations(2014-05) Cortez, John-Michael Vincent; Zhang, Ming, 1963 April 22-This report discusses the effects of the Great Recession on US transit agency budgets, and the actions taken to cope with declining revenues, including increases in fares, which disproportionately impact low-income, transit-dependent populations. For a variety of reasons, US transit agencies have responded by establishing programs to mitigate the impact of fare increases on vulnerable populations. A scan of US transit agency websites identified five prevalent types of mitigation programs established by transit agencies. A case study of Capital Metro transit agency offers some insight on these issues. Finally, recommendations for additional research and action in this arena are discussed.Item Modeling food deserts : devising an adaptable framework to test built environment disruptors in urban food deserts(2018-12) Abel, Kelsey Christina; Faust, Kasey M.Food Deserts are an expansive problem with cascading effects on quality of life, equity, and health outcomes for FD residents. Within urban FDs, a disconnect exists between the built environment and stakeholder populations, which exacerbates access issues. Modeling food access within FDs could help decision makers and urban planners devise and test solutions to increase access and mitigate negative effects on FD residents. The devised framework provides an adaptable model that can be applied to any FD and then used to simulate the impact of a variety of disruptors. The framework leverages Object-Oriented Programming and combines Agent-Based Modeling, Geographic Information Systems, and Discrete Event Simulation. To test its functionality, this framework was applied to a case study region in Austin, Texas. Results indicate that all modeled disruptors improve food access in the case study region, but efficacy is dependent on disruptor location and the distance residents are willing to walk to reach a store or bus stop (referred to as WTWS and WTWB, respectively). Most significantly, this work demonstrates and discusses how simulation modeling can be used to (1) inexpensively test proposed solutions to food access issues before large-scale capital investments are made; (2) identify emergent behavior and confounding variables that might increase or decrease a disruptor’s efficacy if leveraged correctly; and (3) identify unique, area-specific solutions to food access issues within FDs to achieve more sustainable improvements in food access among underserved populations. The practical application of this work is its ability to provide decision makers with data on what built environment disruptors would be most effective at improving food access in FDs. Future iterations of this work may be used to recommended courses of action to engineers and decision makers about how to address food access in underserved regions from both a policy and a built environment perspective