This page describes two projects Lina Olsson (Assistant Professor at Malmö University) and I have worked on. The first compared how neighbourhoods in two cities (Malmö, Sweden, and Kitchener, Canada) fared after new transit infrastructure was built. The second compared how international cities integrate human rights into their transportation plans. K2 (Nationellt Kunskapcentrum för Kollectivtrafik/Swedish Knowledge Centre for Public Transport) funded both of these studies.
We started the project “Challenges for Making TOD Equitable in Mid-Sized Cities: Changing Neighbourhoods in Malmö, Sweden, and Kitchener, Canada” with a grant from K2 from 2019-2022. We compared Rosengård, Malmö to downtown Kitchener to see how the neighbourhoods have changed in response to new transportation infrastructure. We conducted interviews online with planners, developers, and real estate professionals in both cities due to COVID-19, but were unable to do interviews with community members. We finished the in-person interviews with residents and business owners in Malmö and Kitchener from August-October 2022. While in Malmö we also presented our work to Swedish and international colleagues and the graduate students at Malmö University’s Urban Studies group. We published an article in 2024 and presented the work at two conferences.
Our second project, “Exploring Human Rights to Public Transportation: An Inquiry into the Right to Public Transportation and Urban Mobility as a Human Right” (2023-2024) includes reviewing the transport plans for cities that have identified themselves as Human Rights Cities (5 in North America, 4 in South America, 4 in Europe and 2 in Asia). We are currently in the process of content analysis of these plans and have presented preliminary results (assisted by two of my Bachelors students, Ruby Shepherd and Sasha Wang, who conducted the content analysis for the North and South American plans).
Project Updates
Olsson, L. and Thomas, R. “Towards Inclusive Public Transport in Urban Regions.” CARIN-PT (JPI Urban Europe Project). February 6-7, 2025, Brussels, Belgium.
Olsson, L. and Thomas, R. “Exploring Human Rights in Transport/Mobility Plans and Policies.” Center for Mobilities and Urban Studies conference. August 22-23, 2024, Aalborg, Denmark.
Olsson, L. and Thomas, R. (2024). Mobility justice or transit boosterism? The use of rail transit as an urban transformation strategy in Kitchener, Canada and Malmö, Sweden. Mobilities. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2024.2304844
Thomas, R. (2024). Mobility justice or transit boosterism? The use of rail transit as an urban transformation strategy in Kitchener, Canada and Malmö, Sweden. Presentation to Dalhousie University Faculty of Architecture and Planning. Halifax, January 10, 2024.
Olsson, L. and Thomas, R. (2020). “State-led gentrification? The effects of transit infrastructure in Malmö, Sweden and Kitchener, Canada.” Association of American Schools of Planning. November 4-9, 2020, online due to COVID-19.