Achieving Transportation Equity: Meaningful Public Involvement to Meet the Needs of Underserved Communities

Abstract

Civil rights and environmental justice laws and regulations aim to ensure fair processes and outcomes in regional transportation planning. Despite these requirements, people of color and low income tend to be disproportionately burdened while receiving few benefits. We argue that a key factor driving this disconnect is the nature of public involvement, in particular, a near-absence of meaningful public involvement through which affected residents can influence and shape decisions. We propose a new model for public involvement in transportation planning, based on a review of the literature and two policy and planning case studies. Our model identifies addressing the priority unmet needs of underserved communities as a fundamental touchstone of equity and argues for dedicating a stream of funding to meet those needs. Widespread application of this model, at the regional level and elsewhere, would likely result in improvements to both the general welfare and transportation equity conditions.

From Transportation Equity to Transportation Justice: Within, Through, and Beyond the State

“…The PB approach can be extended to transportation finance and project selection. Drawing from the global and domestic implementation of PB approaches, Karner and Marcantonio (2018) propose dedicating a share of a transportation agency’s discretionary budget to meet needs identified by community-based organizations, adequately resourcing community participation in the process, and committing to track progress toward meeting community-identified goals over time. Without funds dedicated to support community-based organizations in providing input, an exercise that purports to direct resources to disadvantaged communities is at risk of perpetuating past injustices.…”

“…Participants in inside games may also become coopted by state bodies, surrendering their more militant oppositional capacities and functions for a seat at the table (Harrison 2015; Liévanos 2012; Selznick 1949; Coy and Hedeen 2005). Related critiques have been leveled at formal public engagement efforts more generally, where it is difficult to see how public involvement efforts lead to changes in preordained outcomes (Innes and Booher 2004; Karner and Marcantonio 2018). Additional examples appear in the literature where environmental justice stakeholders were included in various inside processes, only to have their input marginalized when it did not comport with perspectives supported by the state and capital (e.g., J.…”

“…But transportation planners around the world more commonly focus on technical fixes and quantitative “equity” analyses that illustrate how the benefits and burdens of transportation plans and projects are distributed, often relying upon large-scale simulation models of future land use and travel behavior (Karner 2016; Manaugh, Badami, and El-Geneidy 2015; Martens, Golub, and Robinson 2012). Public involvement is also solicited, but it is often pro forma, and its results are unlikely to affect ultimate decisions, a result replicated across multiple issue domains (e.g., Arnstein 1969; Innes and Booher 2010; Karner et al 2019; Karner and Marcantonio 2018; Rowe and Frewer 2000, 2004; Shilling, London, and Liévanos 2009).…”

Misrecognition in a Sustainability Capital: Race, Representation, and Transportation Survey Response Rates in the Portland Metropolitan Area

“…For Fraser [44][45][46], legal, resource, and status equality must be granted by institutional authorities to enable parity of participation that is meaningful for the public. These procedural and distributive justice frameworks cohere, respectively, with transportation equity initiatives that center on meaningful public participation and fair distribution of transportation services and investments [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. An alternative strand of justice theory places misrecognition of social group difference at the core of questions regarding maldistribution and skewed participation in collective decision-making processes [41,44,46,47], as well as in unsustainable social systems [13].…”

“…These surveys now inform transportation planning, investment decisions, and equity and sustainability analyses in the United States [1,2]. As understood within and beyond the United States, transportation equity initiatives typically seek to advance meaningful public participation and fair distribution of transportation services and investments for people of color (POC) and other marginalized populations [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. The prevalence of procedural and distributional inequities can impair a transportation system's ability to achieve a multifaceted notion of "sustainability" that is inclusive of social equity and justice alongside institutionalized concerns over the intergenerational economic and environmental effects of urban and regional development [10][11][12][13][14].…”