26 JAN 2026 (MON) 16:35 - 17:05

Transportation Equity in Dense Cities: Environmental Burdens and Mobility Benefits 

Mr NIU Chenming 

( Supervisor: Prof Junshi Xu )

Abstract:

Transportation equity in dense cities is shaped by both environmental burdens and mobility benefits, yet conventional evaluations often obscure how these impacts vary across space, time, and travel modes. This research advances two connected, equity-focused studies that examine how traffic-related emissions and emerging mobility technologies redistribute exposure and accessibility across populations. The first study investigates current transportation operations in a high-density Asian city, where constrained road space and intensive public transport use amplify the equity implications of fleet composition and operating schedules. Using machine learning and computer vision to integrate traffic counts, detector data, and street imagery, this study estimates hourly, road-segment-level emissions with vehicle-class resolution and reveals pronounced spatiotemporal exposure inequities across neighbourhoods and times of day. The second study extends this empirical foundation through a forward-looking scenario analysis in a dense North American metropolitan region, examining how autonomous ride-hailing may reshape multimodal interactions under alternative pricing regimes. The results indicate a nonlinear pricing response, with moderate fare reductions displacing longer and peak-period transit trips while improving accessibility in disadvantaged, transit-poor areas, and with complementarity strongest during off-peak and late-night periods. Together, these studies frame transportation equity as a time-dependent process shaped by both present-day fleet operations and future mobility system design.