Colliding Modes of Transportation: Issues of Inequity and Unsustainability‪.‬

Abstract Decisions about how we transport ourselves are considered a matter of personal choice and in North America, the majority "choose" the private automobile. Yet, transportation infrastructure is a matter of public policy and greatly affects individual choice. After approximately 90 years of mass-production, the role of the car in the destruction of cities has been well established, as has the ecological unsustainability of its present (over)use. More recently, sociologists have identified that the automobile increases and entrenches social inequities. Consequently, this raises questions about the democratic and liberalizing qualities historically associated with the car. This paper examines the connections between social inequity and ecologically unsustainable auto-centered planning in Toronto, Ontario, a city in the process of re-inventing itself. Transportation alternatives that reduce social inequity and ecological unsustainability are also considered.