UC Irvine Law Review

Higher education has long been hailed as the key to social and economic mobility. And yet, mobility itself is one of the greatest barriers to equity in higher education. Although scholars and policymakers have thus far paid scant attention to the role of transportation in higher education, this Article establishes why that oversight undermines educational equity.

Grounding its arguments in both interdisciplinary literature and rich original data from a multi-year mixed-methods research study, this Article demonstrates how transportation law and infrastructure affect college completion, disproportionately hindering completion for students of color. It further argues that higher education law and policy exacerbate, rather than alleviate, systemic transportation barriers for students, reinforcing education inequities.

This Article adds important dimensions to scholarship on both transportation and higher education. By focusing on the interaction between two structural systems, it offers a unique lens through which scholars can understand the complex landscape of higher education law. Finally, this Article offers education policymakers a range of policy and programmatic changes affecting transportation that can advance higher education equity.