Suburban Mobilities Cluster (SuMo) at the University of Toronto Scarborough is a multi-disciplinary research program that draws on expertise across nine disciplines to tackle four suburban mobility challenges: rising suburban inequalities, improving transportation design and technology, increasing transportation impacts on climate change, and emerging stakes on resilience to shocks.
With support from the Mobility Network, SuMo hosted its first Research Day on Friday, June 09, 2023. The half-day program featured presentations from faculties and students on a variety of research projects that investigated accessibility measures, active travel of older adults, healthcare access, quality of life, and transportation-related investment priorities.
SuMo Cluster’s Director, Dr. Steven Farber, Associate Professor of Department of Human Geography at UTSC delivered the welcoming remarks. Cluster’s Research Coordinator, Dr. Ignacio Tiznado Aitken moderated the session.
The highlight of the Research Day was ‘Scarborough Survey’ which collected data from Scarborough residents on their mobility and built environment barriers, automobility, access to services, politics, social capital, and health outcomes. The survey has been in active use by the cluster members and students, and several ongoing works utilizing the survey have been presented during the program.
Presentations from UTSC:
Dr. Ignacio Tiznado Aitken, Postdoctoral Fellow: Introduction: SuMo Cluster and the ‘Scarborough Survey’.
Dr. Nicholas Spence, Assistant Professor: Predictors of transportation-related barriers to healthcare access.
Alec Khachatryan, Graduate Student: Active travel among older adults in suburban contexts: A mixed-methods approach.
Anton Yu, Graduate Student: 15-Minute City in Scarborough.
João Pedro Figueira Amorim Parga, Graduate Student: Relationships between accessibility and quality of life outcomes.
Zehui Yin, Undergraduate Student: Investment priority on transportation infrastructures.
Note: All research works have been carried out using Scarborough as the study area.
The details of the program schedule are available here.
More information on SuMo Cluster and its activities are available here.
The presentations are available to here.