Surface Transportation Environmental Research A Long-Term Strategy -- Special Report 268 (2002) / Chapter Skim
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4 Research Area 3: Environmental and Social Justice
4 Research Area 3: Environmental and Social Justice
Pages 78-104
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From page 78... ...
NEPA and civil rights statutes were both used to challenge transportation projects that appeared to have dis proportionate negative consequences for the poor, people of color, and the politically disenfranchised (National Commission on Urban Problems 1969; Baldassare 1997)
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From page 79... ...
"different groups of people can be expected to have differ ent interests and different priorities." The report presents a proposed new approach to transportation planning and decision making that relies on ongo ing community involvement; considers a wide range of alternatives; and pro duces information on social, economic, and environmental impacts in ways that clarify their magnitude and incidence. Almost two decades later, Congress renewed the call for consideration of social, economic, and environmental effects in transportation planning and decision making for both highways and transit with passage of the Inter modal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA)
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From page 80... ...
4Work in the 1980s indicating that low-income and minority communities disproportionately housed toxic waste disposal sites led to a series of organized citizen actions that has come to be known as the environmental justice movement. In 1991, advocates adopted "Principles of Envi ronmental Justice" (1991)
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From page 81... ...
. Environmental justice advo cates, along with others supporting community reinvestment, have focused their attention on the distribution of transportation benefits and costs and have begun to seek transportation investments that will increase social equity, improve access and mobility among disadvantaged populations, and help improve the quality of life in low-income and minority neighborhoods.
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From page 82... ...
Some of the fundamental research questions related to transportation, environmental justice, and social equity that must be addressed if those goals are to be met are explored in the remainder of this chapter. DIFFERENCES IN MOBILITY, ACCESS, AND TRAVEL BEHAVIOR A growing body of research conducted at the national level or for particular regions has identified significant differences in mobility, access, and travel behavior across racial and ethnic groups (Myers 1997; Zmud and Arce 2001; Polzin et al.
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From page 83... ...
. But relatively little work to date has focused on how well various transportation strategies address the observed needs of children, of women versus men, of poor people who have not received public assistance, or of different racial and ethnic groups.
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From page 84... ...
THE CONCEPT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL JUSTICE Civil rights and environmental justice have been the impetus for a number of challenges to transportation programs and projects in recent years, including cases concerning the provision of transit service and the siting of highways. Some of these conflicts have resulted in litigation.6 Underlying these contro versies are concerns not only about the adverse effects of transportation proj ects on different population groups, but also about the fairness of the decision-making processes involved.
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From page 85... ...
. Researchers have also sought to address unfairness in the allocation of public burdens, from the routing of highways through inner-city neighborhoods to the siting of landfills, incinerators, and hazardous waste disposal sites (Lazarus 1993; Been 1993)
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From page 86... ...
Despite federal legislation during the last decade mandating public input into transportation planning and development in low-income and minority communities, many are dissatisfied with the processes used for this purpose. Low-income populations and communities of color are increasingly chal lenging the equity of transportation agency policies for the funding and operation of public transportation systems.
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From page 87... ...
About 80 per cent of the bus riders were people of color. In Harlem, the NYC Environmental Justice Association has taken steps to get the New York Transit Authority and the New York metropolitan plan ning organization to change their policies on siting transportation infrastruc ture facilities, such as bus maintenance depots, in communities of color.
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From page 88... ...
TRANSPORTATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: SOME RECENT EXAMPLES Using a geographic information system (GIS) , the investigators found six tran sit diesel facilities in a 7.4-square-mile area near playgrounds and schools, and more were planned.
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From page 89... ...
Research on alternative methods for financing transit and for improving service to make it more attractive to a wide range of users should address these issues by including an explicit analysis of the distribution of benefits and costs according to income, race, and ethnicity. Many low-income workers are dependent on automobiles for much of their transport, in many cases using older vehicles.8 The costs of automobile ownership and operation are affected by public policies in myriad ways, many of which are devised to meet environmental objectives.
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From page 90... ...
often produce such disparities, generally by reflecting or magnifying underlying income differences, little work has been done to identify alternative methods of transportation finance that would be more equitable. Equity Impacts of New Technology Intelligent transportation systems and other technological advances are becoming important strategies for many state and local transportation offi cials.
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From page 91... ...
Furthermore, the complexity of the models suggests that the level of effort required to understand and apply them may be quite high. Thus there is a need for both more testing and dis semination of models capable of disaggregate analyses, and the development of simplified sketch planning models and heuristics for evaluating the effects of transportation projects on different demographic and socioeconomic groups.
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From page 92... ...
Increasingly, GIS-based methods of impact display are being used both by public agencies and community activists to examine transportation project effects. Indeed, those who represent low income populations in transportation delivery and planning have begun to develop their own GIS tools for evaluating the next generation of trans portation services (Almanza and Alvarez 1995; Rothman et al.
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From page 93... ...
. Policy research on suburban ization and community revitalization thus could have both transportation and environmental justice aspects.
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From page 94... ...
Public agencies are con cerned about the legitimacy of their decision processes and whether the par ticipants in the planning process are representative of the larger public. Given the importance of outcomes as well as processes, research on public involve ment and its effects on funding decisions, project design, impact assessment, and outcomes is an essential element in making transportation planning and decision making more effective.
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From page 95... ...
differences in mobility, access, and travel behavior across demographic groups; (b) defini tions of social equity and understanding of environmental justice problems and issues; (c)
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From page 96... ...
Working definitions and indicators of environmental justice and social equity that are widely understood and accepted remain to be developed. The process of definition will need to occur through a collaborative effort involving a range of stakeholders in meaningful discussions, and it may need to be revisited and updated from time to time.
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From page 97... ...
Also, develop improved methods for evaluating costs and ben efits when they are not evenly distributed. Include environmental and social justice impact criteria in system performance measures used in transportation planning and investment decisions.
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From page 98... ...
Social justice coalitions are introducing their own data, analyses, cost/benefit calculations, and alternatives into transportation planning processes, creating new political dynamics and issues for transportation agencies and decision makers that are only beginning to be examined. Research is needed on planning frameworks that can accommodate
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From page 99... ...
Environmental Justice and the Siting of Locally Undesirable Land Uses. Cornell Law Review, Vol.
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From page 100... ...
In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Trans portation Research Board, No. 1693, TRB, National Research Council, Wash ington, D.C., pp.
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From page 101... ...
In Trans portation: Environmental Justice and Social Equity Conference Proceedings (Report FTA-DC-26-6025-95-1) , Surface Transportation Policy Project, Wash ington, D.C., and Center for Neighborhood Technology, Chicago, Ill.
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From page 102... ...
1993. Pursuing "Environmental Justice": The Distributional Effects of Environmental Protection.
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From page 103... ...
5, Sept.Oct. Principles of Environmental Justice.
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From page 104... ...
2000. Environmental Justice.
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