By Dr. Aisha Thornton
In American cities, maps of public transit often double as maps of inequality. Bus routes thin out in low-income neighborhoods. Subway stations cluster near business districts while bypassing entire communities. Sidewalks and bike lanes vanish at city borders. The result is not just inconvenience—it is exclusion. For decades, mobility has been rationed by race, class, and geography. The question now is whether transportation can be redesigned not only as infrastructure, but as restitution.
The Case for Reparations
Transportation is not neutral. Highways built in the mid-20th century displaced Black neighborhoods from Detroit to New Orleans. Federal subsidies favored suburban commuters, while urban bus riders—disproportionately poor and nonwhite—endured crumbling fleets and longer waits. Today, researchers at the Brookings Institution estimate that Black households are four times more likely than white households to lack access to a car, even as jobs sprawl farther from transit hubs.
If reparations mean addressing historic harm, then transit belongs on the ledger. The inequities are measurable in lost time, reduced access to healthcare, and diminished job opportunities. Every additional minute spent waiting for a late bus is a minute stolen from work, family, or rest.
Buses, Bikes, and Beyond
What might transit reparations look like? Cities could begin by reallocating resources: electrified bus fleets prioritized for underserved neighborhoods; fare-free pilot programs where commutes have been longest; safe bike infrastructure in areas where cyclists have historically been at highest risk. These are not luxuries. They are targeted investments designed to repair specific harms.
Los Angeles recently experimented with free fares for community college students, linking education and mobility. In Minneapolis, planners rerouted bus rapid transit to better serve historically redlined districts. Each of these policies treats transit not as a perk, but as a right—something that can correct for decades of exclusion.
Obstacles and Pushback
The obstacles are not technical but political. Building rail lines or bus corridors requires billions in funding and years of construction. Meanwhile, opponents frame targeted investments as “unfair subsidies” or budgetary excess. Yet the alternative—continuing the status quo—is already costly. The Urban Institute calculates that households without reliable transit access spend up to 30 percent more of their income on transportation, compounding cycles of poverty.
Toward Mobility Justice
Transit reparations should not be mistaken for charity. They are a recognition that the right to move—to reach work, school, and care—is foundational to citizenship. Just as housing reparations aim to redress discriminatory lending, mobility reparations acknowledge that infrastructure itself has been a tool of exclusion.
Designing buses, trains, and bike lanes as acts of restitution forces planners and policymakers to grapple with history, not just efficiency. The measure of success is not how fast the wealthy can reach downtown, but whether marginalized communities can finally claim equal access to the city itself.
