Environmental Justice and Transportation Investment Policy

David J. Forkenbrock
Lisa A. Schweitzer
1997

During the past four decades, massive investments have been made in transportation facilities, enabling great progress to be made in the efficient movement of people and goods. As time has passed, however, it has become increasingly clear that not everyone has benefited from these transportation facilities. In fact, some populations, often low-income or minority, have been made worse off by the construction and operation of these facilities. Noise or air pollution levels in their neighborhoods may have increased, for example.

Environmental justice is concerned with a variety of public policy efforts to ensure that adverse human health or environmental effects of governmental activities do not fall disproportionately upon minority populations and low-income populations. In the realm of transportation, environmental justice means that transportation system changes such as road improvements are studied carefully to determine the nature, extent, and incidence of probable impacts, both favorable and adverse.

The objective of this project has been to develop a series of practical indicators of economic, social, and environmental impacts related to transportation system changes. Comparing the spatial incidence of these impact sixth the locations of low-income populations and minority populations, it is possible to assess whether the impacts would adversely and disproportionately affect these populations. Our intent is to help make it possible for everyone who is likely to be affected by a particular transportation system change to understand the expected types and magnitudes of anticipated impacts. The objective of such an understanding is to enable those who would be affected to determine which impacts would be most important to them.

Some impacts, particularly those pertaining to air pollution and noise, require computer-based quantitative modeling. To address these types of impacts, we obtained state-of-the-practice models from several government agencies and integrated them with a geographic information system (GIS). We were thus able to examine the spatial nature of relevant impacts. To field test our resulting spatial analysis methods, we used the U.S. Highway 63 corridor in Waterloo, Iowa, as a trial application. Because Waterloo is comparatively diverse in terms of race and income, it is an excellent site for applying methods related to environmental justice.

Research for this project was carried out at the University of Iowa Public Policy Center. Funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program, with supplemental funding contributed by the Iowa and Minnesota Departments of Transportation.

The research team has benefited greatly from its collaboration with a 16-person technical advisory committee. Members of this committee helped focus the issues to be addressed and shared their insights throughout the research process.

$14.95, 106 pp., 28 figures, perfect binding
ISBN 0-87414-143-5