Planning for accessibility: the divide between research and policy in the promotion of equitable mobility

Mobility-related social inequalities are receiving increasing attention from planning research and practice. Nevertheless, research seems to have a limited impact on urban policies addressing mobility. Using Santiago de Chile as a case study, the paper discusses the existing gaps between research on mobility-related equity concerns and existing policies and plans addressing urban mobility operating at national, metropolitan and municipal scales. An equity-based comparison is performed for different spatial planning instruments, exploring guiding concepts and deriving proposals through content analysis. The findings show that there is a comprehensive and multidisciplinary body of literature in Santiago on mobility and equity, approaching several dimensions of mobility, accessibility and social exclusion in relation to different population groups. However, the series of discourses, norms and actions (policies and programmes) operating at different planning scales lack coherence and address only some of the dimensions identified in the literature. Current plans and policies in Santiago have a limited scope and are difficult to modify, questioning their effectiveness for understanding and tackling mobility-related equity concerns.