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Call for Abstracts

The call for abstracts submission period has closed.

Overview
Transportation systems help connect people to all kinds of opportunities that create a meaningful and enriching life. But for some, these systems present profound barriers to movement and access, leaving travelers with substantial unmet needs. Throughout the 20th century, transportation researchers and practitioners have honed ever-more-sophisticated methods for modeling and understanding travel behavior. But rather than using these methods to guide transportation systems towards equitable outcomes, transportation planning agencies continue to pursue similar strategies that produced the current situation—automobile capacity expansions justified by dubious and narrowly construed safety benefits that ignore land-use impacts. During CATE 2, we are interested in righting the ship by sharing research and practical applications that show how members of the public, activists, advocates, planners, and engineers are working within and outside formal decision-making bodies to bring about mobility justice. We invite you to share work that addresses critical questions: How can we ensure everyone has the access they need? How can we understand, minimize, and eliminate barriers? How can communities have a say in neighborhood and infrastructure changes? How can we right historical wrongs and prevent involuntary displacement?

Call for Abstracts - Poster, Lectern Presentations, Panel Sessions, and Non-traditional Submissions
We are seeking submissions from stakeholders, practitioners, and researchers who can share innovative work responsive to CATE 2's overall goal of advancing mobility justice. You are welcome to submit an individual abstract or to assemble three or four abstracts together if you would like to organize a session around a particular theme. We will also consider non-traditional submission such as photos, artwork, sculpture, theater, dance, and other performative and creative practices. 

Possible submission categories are:

  • Non-traditional presentation/demonstration, such as photos, artwork, and other creative mechanisms will be considered with a 250-word description
  • Lectern Presentations submissions should include a 400-word abstract or summary in a session organized by the conference planning committee
  • Panel Sessions should include  250-word description of the session itself, along with regular abstract submissions for all presentations that it will include (4 maximum).
  • Workshops and Roundtable Sessions should include 250-word description of the session along with the time desired
  • Posters proposal should include 250-word description 

The overarching conference theme is Bridging the Divide: Connecting People, Research, and Practice. The conference theme, Reaching Across the Divide: Research, Community Implementation, and Shared Experiences, suggests that we will only advance transportation equity and mobility justice goals by connecting our work to community needs.  It also addresses the disconnect between the transportation equity analyses that agencies conduct and conditions on the ground. Accordingly, we seek contributions from researchers, practitioners, and others that emphasize concrete outcomes and examples of advancing transportation equity goals and objectives. Specific thematic areas include, but are not limited to:

1. Critical perspectives on practice that frame the future of transportation equity and mobility justice research to help redress prior harms.

  • Safety and enforcement
  • Policing
  • Serving people experiencing homelessness
  • Reparative planning
  • Meeting needs for disabled people, women, queer and trans people, rural residents, Black, brown, and Indigenous people

2. Transportation equity in the real world. These submissions will relate to the experiences of community-based and non-profit organizations who are engaged in efforts to advance transportation equity and mobility justice.

3. Studies and analyses of current or future conditions using either qualitative or quantitative methods including: 

  • Publicly available data like census demographics, job locations, and transportation network information
  • Gentrification/involuntary displacement/housing affordability
  • Global immigration flows related to climate, war, and hazards
  • Impacts of laws, regulations, and policies
  • Impacts of new modes and/or technologies related to meeting travel needs, ability to pay, and surveillance (e.g., micromobility, electric vehicles, etc.)
  • Airports, intermodal facilities, and other goods movement-related impacts

4. Plan, program, or project descriptions and reflections related to collaboration and outreach. These could include:

  • Public-private partnerships
  • Education and communication campaigns
  • Finding alternatives and identifying equitable distributions  
  • Efforts to provide meaningful and substantive participation in transportation planning and operation
  • Integrating equity and justice in long-range planning, performance management, safe routes to schools, and more.

5. Identifying good practices, methods, and tools for measuring progress towards equity through transportation and system performance strategies with specific emphasis on:

  • Equitable transit-oriented development
  • All-hazards transportation resilience
  • Climate resilience
  • Americans with Disabilities Act applications
  • Non-motorized modes
  • Public transit service planning
  • Broader economic development
  • Education and workforce development to account for equitable transportation
  • Informal transportation
  • Virtual access 

Evaluation Criteria
Abstract submissions will be evaluated based on the following criteria: 

  • Quality: Abstract is easy to comprehend and concise. The proposed presentation or session advances thinking or research methods on a topic. The proposed session topic contributes to an understanding of transportation innovations or emerging industry trends, or state-of-the-art practices relevant to transportation equity and mobility justice.
  • Novelty: Research is novel and innovative. It takes the field in a new direction and/or looks at existing problems from different perspectives. 
  • Relevance: This particular subject/issue is important today or is just on the horizon. It will further the dialogue or thinking. It is timely and relevant to the symposium topics and attendees.

Submittal Requirements: Papers, Presentations, Panel Sessions, Non-traditional 
The file should be titled with the author's last name, followed by title of paper (e.g. ANDERSON_Transportation_Equity.pdf) and submitted online. Each submittal will contain the following information:

  • Title
  • Author(s) name and affiliation
  • Contact information
  • Faculty advisor and affiliation, if a student
  • Four or more keywords describing topic
  • 100-word biography of the primary author

Key Dates

Abstract Submission Deadline  --Closed--
Notification of Accepted Presenters      late April 2024
Presentation Submission Deadline  June 28, 2024