Distributive Justice, Equity, and Accessibility in Public Transportation in Intermediary Cities: An Integrated Framework for Equitable Territorial Planning Centered on San Juan De Pasto, Nariño, Colombia.

Abstract

This article examines the applicability of distributive justice theories to intermediate cities such as Pasto, demonstrating how the normative frameworks of Rawls and Sen can illuminate concrete urban realities. Over the past decade, urban transport, mobility, distributive justice, and equity have gained prominence, bearing profound implications for social inclusion and territorial cohesion. Bibliometric studies confirm exponential growth in scientific output explicitly addressing transport equity and justice since 2013, with accessibility emerging as the pivotal organizing concept. However, scholarly debate has overwhelmingly concentrated on major metropolises, leaving intermediate cities demographically significant and strategically crucial severely underrepresented in academic literature.

This philosophical-descriptive analysis articulates distributive justice theories specifically Rawlsian egalitarianism and Sen's capability approach with contemporary debates on transport equity and spatial justice, applied descriptively to San Juan de Pasto, Nariño, Colombia. It contends that accessibility constitutes a multidimensional human capability and structural component of potential urban social rights, and that public transport planning in intermediate cities must be explicitly guided by five core normative principles: prioritization of the most vulnerable, verifiable minimum accessibility standards, policy non-regression, respect for fundamental rights and freedoms, and active territorial defragmentation.

The descriptive diagnosis of accessibility inequities in Pasto reveals sociospatial segregation patterns rooted in mountainous topography, the historical concentration of opportunities in consolidated urban cores, and the territorial fragmentation of vulnerable peripheral populations. The article interrogates the tension between hegemonic political discourse on accessibility and persistent structural inequities characteristic of Latin American intermediate cities, proposing a suite of normative indicators and conceptually rigorous evaluative tools attuned to the proposed principles for operationalizing spatial planning decisions. This constitutes a philosophical-descriptive essay, not an empirical investigation with quantitatively verified data regarding Pasto, capital of Nariño Department, Republic of Colombia.