The great equalizer? Mixed effects of social infrastructure on diverse encounters in cities

Timothy Fraser, Takahiro Yabe, Daniel P. Aldrich, Esteban Moro

Abstract: Highlights•Mobile phone location data was used to analyze the effects of social infrastructure on the income and race diversity of urban encounters.•Parks and social businesses were linked to an increase in 1.5% and 2.5% of inter-income encounters, respectively, compared to baseline sites.•Community spaces were conversely linked to more same-income encounters, where a median community space experiences a 0.7% boost in same-income encounters.•Social infrastructure is not a catch-all panacea for social divides, since some types produced opposite effects for inter-race and inter-income encounters.