Vehicle features vary within and between the method of transportation and promote affordances and disaffordances which also depend on user ability and achieved functionality. Individual decision-making, transportation features, and vehicle technology can inform how drivers and other roadway users approach the driving task. Additionally, interactions between individual-vehicle units and others also promote affordances and disaffordances for both them and other roadway users. We explore the role of automation technology, e.g., Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS), in furthering or preventing the advancement of equity using an established affordance methodology. We use drivers navigating ramp metering and traffic merging scenarios as an example case to compare city in the United States and France. Applying the concepts of affordances and disaffordances to transportation furthers a disciplinary understanding of equity and circumstances leading to inequity. Vehicle features and automation technology (e.g., automatic braking) may provide widely varying functionality for some within the transportation system. For instance, vehicle automation technology can impact performance during lane reduction and merging in ramp metering. We contextualize inequities through affordances in a ramp metering example in Washington D.C. and Paris to convey how automation technology can address and contribute to difficulties in the driving task. We communicate through our example how understanding the context of the system, such as residential location, is paramount to advancing equity. This work enables a broader analysis of automation technology use during transportation interactions and is crucial and timely given the uncertainties that come with autonomous and connected vehicles being integrated into the transportation system.