Equity-Oriented Criteria for Project Prioritization in Regional Transportation Planning

Abstract

Transportation inequities, the consequences of decades of auto-oriented planning alongside discriminatory land-use and transportation planning and policy decisions resulting from structural racism, severely limit opportunities for people of color and other marginalized populations. While a growing body of work has examined inequities with respect to long-range transportation planning, less research examines how equity is incorporated in short-term planning processes via the Transportation Improvement Program. This research reviewed how the metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) that serve the 40 largest U.S. urbanized areas used equity-based criteria for transportation project prioritization in regional planning. Just over half deployed at least one equity criterion for allocating transportation funds, which fell into one of six categories with varying degrees of complexity and potential for impact. While most MPOs included equity in their prioritization criteria, the methods could be improved to align better with more complete definitions of transportation equity, focusing on how targeted groups are defined, more comprehensive methods for equity evaluation, and an increase in the weight that equity is given in prioritization. MPOs and other agencies implementing transportation projects should adopt a justice-oriented framework for project prioritization that ensures that projects first affirmatively remedy historical inequities and work with affected communities to adopt appropriate and meaningful solutions.

Transportation Equity Quantification and Related Issues and Challenges

“…The community engagement access is more complex however and requires good faith input and listening on both sides, a consideration that project sponsors may be less than forthcoming about, and many organizations do not even consider. The extent, weight of, and exact variables used vary per MPO (Krapp et al, 2021).…”

“…Defining which groups are disadvantaged varies between organizations as more universal groups such as low-income populations and people of color are also sometimes supplemented by considerations of people with disabilities and elderly populations (Krapp et al, 2021;Ferenchak & Marshall, 2020;Loukaitou-Sideris & Wachs, 2018;Ogunniran & Happiness, 2019). One method for quantifying equity is by using a comparative city-based approach which can use a wide variety of cities to identify and model the extent to which various factors impact a system (Pareekh et al, 2017).…”

“…While historically transportation has both affirmed and caused inequality, the societal causes are complex. Only so much can be done strictly from the transportation side and as a result, it is essential the field be integrated into wider measures and analyses (Krapp et al, 2021). Fields such as housing, environmental justice, and labor are all important to understanding transportation equity and are interconnected.…”

“…This is specifically to prevent spending from flowing more heavily to groups that are already considered advantaged (Lyons & Choi, 2021). There is no requirement by the US Department of Transportation, however, to consider equity (Krapp et al, 2021). The American Disabilities Act of 1990 implemented new policies which seek to ensure more equitable access for disabled persons.…”

Comprehensive Evaluation of Urban Integrated Transportation Network With Multivariate Statistical Analysis: A Case Study of Haimen

“…The aim of their studies is either achieving sustainability or emphasizing economic benefits [24], which is far from enough to meet the needs of the society. The transportation network system needs the CE, which should incorporate heterogeneous evaluation aspects [25]. In addition, it should also be emphasized that little attention has hitherto been paid to the operation mechanism inside the UITN and a unified and standardized measure that can quantitively and systematically assess the UITN is not built yet.…”