The COVID-19 pandemic continues to shine a spotlight on inequities in our transportation systems. The U of T Transportation Alumni Committee once again chose a timely and relevant theme for their third annual student competition in 2021: “Addressing Transportation Equity in the Post-Pandemic City.”
Transportation has a direct influence on access to opportunities such as employment, education, and healthcare. However, not everyone has equal access to affordable, reliable, and safe transportation. Black, Indigenous, people of color, and people with disabilities often face significant challenges finding affordable means of transportation. At the same time, negative externalities imposed by our transportation systems, such as air pollution and traffic crashes, disproportionately affect historically marginalized communities. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought special attention to structural inequalities in the transportation system. – Excerpt from 2021 New Frontiers in Transportation competition brief
Student teams presented their research projects at a public online symposium on September 14, 2021.
The competition
The student competition symposium was the final stage of a process that began with a virtual launch event in early June. Proposals under the theme “Transportation Network Resilience in the Age of COVID-19 and Beyond” were submitted later in June, and from those, short-listed teams were chosen and assigned mentors.
Multi-disciplinary teams of three students or recent graduates representing at least two different U of T departments worked over two months to study and develop a transportation solution to transform current policy or practice. Volunteer mentors from the transportation profession worked with each team.
Volunteer judges Antonio Gittens of StreetLight Data, Sandra Padilla of HDR, and Helen Noehammer of the City of Mississauga tallied final scores for each team, based on their written submission (60%) and live symposium presentation (40%), and announced prize winners.
You did an absolutely fantastic job and made our decision and our evaluation process quite challenging. – Helen Noehammer, judge
We’re all very impressed by your work and how you presented your work as well. So kudos to all our teams! – Sandra Padilla, judge
Prize winning teams
First place of $650 per student: “Honouring of Transfers: Equity Evaluation of Transit Policies in Cross-Boundary Trips”
Team members:
- Rick Liu (MASc, CivMin)
- Navyata Neeraj (HBA, Double Major in Economics and Urban Studies)
- Alex Tabascio (MA, Department of Geography and Planning)
Mentors for this team were Josephine Macharia of IBI Group, Matthew Routley of Metrolinx and Rudy Sooklall of TraffMobility Engineering Inc.
Second place of $475 per student: “Addressing Transit Equity Amid Service Reductions: Examining Changes in Neighbourhood Connectivity as a Result of COVID-19 Pandemic Induced Service Reduction”
Team members:
- Benjamin Mumford (HBA, Specialist Human Geography, Minor in Geographic Information Systems)
- Harry Zhao (HBSc, Human Geography Specialist Program, Minor in Geographic Information Systems)
- Gordon Huang (HBSc, Economics, Statistics and Geographic Information Systems)
Mentors for this team were Nansen Feng of R.J. Burnside, Greg Hoy of BA Group, and Joshua Wang of York Region.
Third place of $375 per student: “Toronto’s Active Roots”
Team members:
- Angel Yang (HBA, Double Major in Environmental Geography and Urban Studies)
- Denelle Carvalho (HBA, Human Geography and Diaspora and Transnational Studies)
- Kha Den De (John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design)
The team was mentored by John Kemp of IBI Group, Cherie Cohen of CanadaHelps, and Trevor Jenkins of the City of Hamilton.
Fourth place team
“Analyzing Surface Transit Innovation Post Closure of Scarborough SRT”
Team members
- Anika Munir (Bachelor of Public Policy and City Studies, Minor in Public Law)
- Rajpreet Sidhu (HBA, International Development Studies with a Minor in Human Geography)
- Neil Patel (HBA, Major in City Studies, Minors in Urban Governance and Human Geography)
The team was mentored by Michelle Kearns of Access Planning, Shahan Shaikh of TTC, and Mehemed Delibasic of McIntosh Perry.
Sponsors
This competition was made possible by the generous support of sponsors Dr. Mazen I.S. Hassounah, HDR, IBI, and Parsons.
Interested in sponsoring future UTTAN activities? Please contact Yunfei Zhang, Vice-Chair, University of Toronto Transportation Alumni Committee.
Watch the symposium videorecording
More about the competition
- Watch a video recording of UTTAN’s 2021 Launch Event for the New Frontiers in Transportation Student Competition, June 1, 2021.
- Read about and view the video recording of the 2020 New Frontiers in Transportation Student Competition Symposium in “COVID-19 transportation challenges and solutions explored at student competition.”
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