Abstract:
Spatial equity plays an important role in the planning process. Whether or not a city can provide relative equity in term of accessibility to its residents influences its development. Prior research focusing on housing distribution and the accessibility of households to public facilities shows an accessibility gap between different socioeconomic groups, with the low-income and minority groups being disadvantaged in terms of access to public goods and services. Since accessibility is closely related to mobility, access to public transportation has also been taken into consideration to examine the equity status of places. This thesis analyzed the spatial equity status of the Atlanta 10-County Region. The equity status of four household groups including White households with cars, White households without cars, African American households with cars, and African American households without cars are compared. Eight types of public facilities were chosen to analyze the accessibility of household groups traveling by public transportation system and by car. The results showed that households traveling by car have more accessibility than households without cars traveling by public transportation. Also, though there was a similar level of spatial equity between the two racial groups with the same transportation mode, when the two different transportation modes are considered, a high level of spatial inequity existed between two racial groups. White households had more accessibility than African Americans.
