Titre: On the design of public transport for equality of accessibility

Abstract: Methods for the design of Public Transport (PT) networks traditionally maximize some overall efficiency indicator and do not include its geographical distribution into the optimization objectives. The unequal distribution of accessibility between privileged city centers and poorly served suburbs condemns the latter to a longstanding car-dependency. Equality of accessibility distribution has not been operationalized as an objective of PT network design optimization. We aim to fill this gap. We propose and compare two random search algorithms: efficiency- and equality-based. Our numerical results show that it is possible to reduce inequality of accessibility, with no excessive loss in efficiency. We then obtain simple guidelines for equality-aware stop selection