Access to Transportation: Bus Network and Spatial Inequality in Columbus

• In Event: 1451 - Community and Urban Sociology Section Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 18. Urban Development

Abstract

This paper will operationalize the COTA (Central Ohio Transit Authority) bus system as a network to measure the accessibility one has to other parts of the city where infrastructure and social capital exist. Examining how densely the network of the buses are established and how there are structural holes in the bus network will be helpful in assessing the accessibility one has from their neighborhood. This attempt to establish the bus system as a network will be useful in unveiling the policy decisions that were made by the City of Columbus and COTA in setting the transportation routes. The basis on which these decisions were made and how effective they are in mediating or exacerbating the spatial inequality will be palpable with the results from this study.

With each bus stops as nodes, income and racial compositions of neighborhoods will be attributes that will be examined, using an ERGM model. With the number of nodes going over 3,000 with various dyad and triad structures throughout the network, other methods may not be able to capture the complexities of structural features.

One of the main contributions of this study will be the use of public data (Smart Columbus) for network analysis. Public data is a good source as it is constantly updated and consequently reflects the reality. Moreover, findings from a study using such data can have practical policy implications. With its focus on just one city, this study may not have generalizability, but it can act as a model for replications in other parts of the country and for cross-national studies as well.

Author

• Eungang (Peter) Choi, The Ohio State University