Toward the Development of a Unified Process and Methodology Guide for Environmental Justice Analysis in Planning and Programming

2021 ◽  
pp. 036119812110288
Author(s):  
Eliot Benman ◽  
David Aimen
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Transportation Planning ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Metropolitan Planning Organizations ◽  
South Central ◽  
Planning Organizations ◽  
Analytical Approaches

Federal Environmental Justice directives require transportation agencies responsible for planning and programming federal funds, including state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), to identify and address disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental impacts on minority and low-income populations. Despite issuance of federal and state guidance and training programs, many MPOs nationwide continue to seek clarity on effective environmental justice (EJ) approaches and procedural considerations. The South Central Pennsylvania Unified EJ Process and Methodology study was a year-long effort undertaken by a consortium of MPOs in Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) District 8 to identify a unified and replicable approach to implementing EJ in transportation planning. PennDOT, Federal Highway Administration PA Division, and Federal Transit Administration Region III provided technical assistance and support to the effort. The consortium engaged a technical assistance consultant to facilitate a collaborative process to identify a process framework, a set of analytical methodologies, and effective strategies for advancing EJ in the regional transportation planning process. The study demonstrated a model for convening regional, state, and federal partners to reach consensus around an effective EJ process and methodology. This paper provides an overview of the study process, findings related to the concerns of the participating MPOs, and a brief description of the recommended analytical approaches. The paper discusses lessons learned during the course of the study and considers additional work required to further enhance the EJ process.

Integrating Safety into the Transportation Planning Process

2005 ◽  
Vol 1922 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-89
Author(s):  
Camelia Ravanbakht ◽  
Samuel S. Belfield ◽  
Keith M. Nichols
Keyword(s):  
Transportation Planning ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Congestion Management ◽  
Safety Study ◽  
Hampton Roads ◽  
Crash Data ◽  
Metropolitan Planning Organizations ◽  
Planning Organizations ◽  
The Right ◽  
High Crash Locations

The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century requires metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to incorporate safety and security into the transportation planning process as one of the seven planning factors. The Hampton Roads Planning District Commission (HRPDC) is the designated MPO for Southeastern Virginia. In 2001, as part of its congestion management system (CMS) program, the HRPDC staff initiated a comprehensive regional safety study, which included collecting comprehensive crash data and creating a regional database for 151 Interstate segments and 13,000 intersections. The crash severity method was used to analyze, rank, and determine the top high-crash locations for Interstate segments as well as the CMS intersections. This regional safety study was designed to help local communities understand safety-related problems and issues. Congestion, failure to yield the right-of-way, following too closely, driver inattention, and disregarding traffic signals were found to be the main causes of traffic crashes in Hampton Roads between 1998 and 2000. Rear-ends and right angles were the predominant crash types during the period. The study analyzed and recommended a series of safety-related countermeasures and solutions for the top-10 high-crash locations throughout the region. Some common countermeasures that were recommended were adding roadway capacity, adding turn lanes at intersections, improving signal timing, improving signage, increasing enforcement, and providing additional driver education.

Intercity Transportation Planning in China

2015 ◽  
Vol 2512 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiawen Yang ◽  
Xiongbin Lin ◽  
Ying Xie
Keyword(s):  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Transportation Planning ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
Metropolitan Planning Organizations ◽  
Planning Organizations ◽  
Transportation Accessibility ◽  
Road Projects ◽  
The Pearl River

As a response to the emergence of multicity urban areas, Chinese governments began to adopt the American concept of a metropolitan area to frame strategies for spatial development and planning. Chinese metropolitan areas, however, lack U.S.-style metropolitan planning organizations that can engage multiple municipal governments in metropoliswide policy making, planning, and investment. With the Pearl River Delta's Guangzhou–Foshan metropolitan area in China as the example, this paper examines how a governing arrangement has emerged in the process of transportation planning and assesses its effectiveness in addressing the metropolitanwide need for transportation accessibility. The successes of metro transit and an annual toll pass are in contrast with limited progress in taxi management and arterial road projects, which points to the need for fine-tuning the governing arrangement.

Mainstreaming Intermodal Freight into the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process

1998 ◽  
Vol 1613 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Zavattero ◽  
F. Gerald Rawling ◽  
Daniel F. Rice
Keyword(s):  
Transportation Planning ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
System Level ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Intermodal Freight ◽  
Public And Private Sector

The Chicago Area Transportation Study (CATS), as a metropolitan planning organization, developed an approach to integrate intermodal freight transportation into regional plans and programs. This process began with the establishment of the Intermodal Advisory Task Force (IATF) in 1994 and led to a series of freight-oriented activities and products, including the identification of regionally significant facilities, analysis of improvement needs, and the intermodal component of the 2020 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) for northeastern Illinois. Task Force membership includes public- and private-sector representatives working cooperatively to develop and direct a work plan to address goods movement and inter-modal freight issues and needs. The intermodal planning process involved significant preparatory work. The IATF established four working groups that directed specific tasks, including development of a geographic information system–based intermodal facilities inventory, an outreach for industry needs, a review of proposed intermodal improvements, identification and analysis of intermodal connections to the national highway system, and analysis to estimate the economic value of the industry to the region. Ultimately, six policy statements were developed and incorporated as system-level intermodal recommendations in the RTP. The process developed by CATS through the IATF has “mainstreamed” intermodal freight issues, analysis, and policies into the transportation plans and programs of northeastern Illinois. Although the scale of the intermodal and freight industry in Chicago is enormous, the lessons learned and the technical and institutional approaches developed through the IATF offer valuable insight and direction to other regions seeking to support their intermodal freight industry through the transportation planning process.

Conditions and Consequences of ELULU Improvement: Environmental Justice Lessons from San Francisco, CA

2020 ◽  
pp. 0739456X2092940
Author(s):  
Miriam Solis
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Communities Of Color ◽  
Neighborhood Relationship ◽  
Locally Unwanted Land Uses

Existing locally unwanted land uses (ELULUs) are disproportionately located in low-income communities of color. As ELULUs fall into disrepair, can planners redevelop them in ways that advance environmental justice and, if so, how? Through a case study of a San Francisco ELULU redevelopment planning process, this article highlights the central role of community-based organizing in generating policy changes that promoted certain environmental justice outcomes. A reconceptualization of the agency-neighborhood relationship was key. Findings also identify the obduracy of infrastructure and directed redress as central planning considerations and tensions.

scholarly journals Equity-oriented Criteria for Project Prioritization in Regional Transportation Planning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agustina Krapp ◽  
Jesus Barajas ◽  
Audrey Wennink
Keyword(s):  
Transportation Planning ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Structural Racism ◽  
Improvement Program ◽  
Metropolitan Planning Organizations ◽  
Transportation Projects ◽  
Planning Organizations ◽  
Planning Processes ◽  
Equity Evaluation

Transportation inequities, consequences of decades of auto-oriented planning alongside discriminatory land-use and transportation planning and policy decisions resulting from structural racism, severely impact 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 US 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 better align 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

Innovations in Long-Range Transportation Planning: Observations and Suggestions

2003 ◽  
Vol 1858 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Kramer ◽  
Edward A. Mierzejewski
Keyword(s):  
Long Range ◽  
Transportation Planning ◽  
Urban Transportation ◽  
Comprehensive Understanding ◽  
Technical Approach ◽  
Metropolitan Planning Organizations ◽  
Metropolitan Planning ◽  
Planning Organizations ◽  
Transportation Research ◽  
Innovation And Change

In 1997, to gain a comprehensive understanding of the issues and concerns facing metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) in Florida, the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) thoroughly reviewed the long-range transportation plans of each of the state’s 25 MPOs. The study made some substantial recommendations about technical approach and structure for improvements to MPO long-range plans. In 2002, CUTR again reviewed the state’s 25 MPO long-range transportation plans, following completion of the subsequent update cycle. The recent updates of Florida’s 25 MPO long-range plans are compared with the versions completed 3 to 5 years earlier. There has been much innovation and change in long-range transportation-planning practice across the state. These findings will be of interest to MPOs nationwide.

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