Evaluating the Impact of Transportation Infrastructures on Social Equity: A Review Study

Evaluating infrastructure's impact on social equity is an emerging area of research in transportation construction engineering. Transportation agencies have been trying to include sustainable development. The three components of sustainable development are environmental protection, social equity, and economic development. Although social equity is one of the essential components of sustainable development, most transportation agencies do not consider this component. The research publications in this area are limited. The principal objective of this study is to synthesize existing studies related to the impact of transportation infrastructures on social equity. This study will also identify social equity indicators, the correlation between social equity and transportation infrastructures and their services, and the impact of transportation infrastructures' on social equity. In addition, this study will identify current issues of social equity and will provide some recommendations. This synthesis study revealed that transportation infrastructures impacted social equity in various ways. Some effects are positive, such as new job creation on the market. Other effects are adverse, such as diminishing socio-economic and environmental degradation. Studies also showed that the current practices evaluated infrastructures' impact on a case-by-case basis. The authors recommend adopting a multi-disciplinary holistic for assessing infrastructure's effects on social equity. The multi-disciplinary fields of study include civil engineers, construction engineers/managers, public policy researchers, environmentalists, and social scientists.