Public transport accessibility equity: A comprehensive distributive assessment in France

• A fine-grained job accessibility index is developed in 140 French areas. • Spatial models capture the impacts of poverty on accessibility in each area. • Higher poverty concentration does not imply substantially better job accessibility. • Accessibility distribution does not meet the equity criteria. • Results stress the need to improve transit accessibility in disadvantaged zones. The distribution of accessibility is a key metric of transport equity. While increasingly studied, current assessments could be enhanced by a clearer framing of the equity principles evaluated, broader sample diversity, and the use of spatial statistics. This research evaluates an equity scenario assuming that the urban system prioritizes the poorest areas. We test whether poorer areas benefit from better job accessibility by public transport than other areas with a similar geographic context. To this end, we compute an accessibility index across 140 areas, combining high spatial resolution with comprehensive nationwide coverage, and analyze it using spatial econometric models. Results show that higher-poverty areas have accessibility levels similar to those in other comparable areas—a pattern that falls short of this equity goal. These findings call for stronger policy interventions targeting disadvantaged neighborhoods. Future research could assess complementary equity criteria, for which we suggest potential avenues.