Quantifying dimensions of Transportation Diversity: A City-Based Comparative Approach

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Abstract Urban population growth has been increasing all over the world primarily due to more economic opportunities in cities than in rural areas but generally without a corresponding upgradation of urban transport infrastructure. However, the diverse groups of city dwellers have different transport needs but transport options in the city are often not so diverse. As a result, the transport system in cities around the world is facing challenges such as congestion, pollution, traffic injuries and fatalities, and lack of equity. It is the argument of this paper that the diverse population of cities of 21st century requires diverse forms of transportation to cater the diverse needs for urban mobility. This paper makes an attempt to quantify diversity through a set of measurable variables by performing exploratory factor analysis on data extracted from an international sample of 51 cities (differing in urban and demographic characteristics). The study seeks to identify factors underlying the concept, and is to the best of our knowledge the first such attempt to quantify transportation diversity using the city based comparative approach. EFA was performed to extract factors characterizing transportation diversity from the dataset. The three factors are extracted from the EFA and the association among the variables is examined in light of the theoretical framework of the study. Theoretical expectations such as the nature of association among indicators such as quality transit and non-motorized infrastructure, innovative policies for promoting active modes, and extent of auto use are confirmed in the study's findings.