Developing a country-wide index for measuring transport poverty: Methods and insights from Canada

The lack of adequate transport options to access opportunities causes an inability to participate in social or economic life due to transport poverty. This work proposes a methodology to calculate a country-wide index to measure transport poverty using Canada as the case study, with the aim of creating a flexible methodology to help guide transport-related interventions. This is a challenging task due to the need for quality data available for the whole country, and to the diversity of territories within it. The index is generated at the smallest geographic level, combining a social disadvantage component with a land use and transport disadvantage component. Results show how social disadvantage, land use and transport disadvantage shape transport poverty, as well as the need to have different geographic scales to interpret the index at different levels of administration. This methodology is relevant to researchers, planners, and decision-makers to support more equitable and sustainable transport systems. Building on this study, future research should further refine and validate the index based on the lived experiences of transport poverty, develop a prioritization framework for transport investment decisions based on the index, and longitudinally analyze the impact of major transport investments, among other potential investigations.