The following links provide access to environmental justice-related guidance documents, research materials, and reports.If you would like to suggest additional research, documents, or reports on this topic, please submit a short description to AASHTO (including any pertinent links) on theShare Info with AASHTO form.
FHWA Guidance on Environmental Justice and NEPA (12/16/11). This document provides guidance to FHWA offices on considering environmental justice issues in the National Environmental Policy Act process for transportation projects.
An Overview of Transportation and Environmental Justice is an FHWA web site that identifies the three fundamental environmental principles, reiterates that environmental justice is already embodied in many laws and regulation, is a key element in improving transportation decision-making, includes minority and low-income populations (and identifies these groups), and applies to all transportation decisions.
FHWA Environmental Guidebook provides Title VI and environmental justice information about legislation, regulations, FHWA policy and guidance, and other guidance and information.
Transportation & Environmental Justice: Case Studies (December 2000) describes 10 case studies that show, when properly implemented, environmental justice principles can improve all levels of transportation decision-making – from the first thought about a transportation plan through project development, right-of-way, construction, and operations and maintenance.
Transportation & Environmental Justice: Effective Practices (January 2002) describes effective practices taken by transportation agencies, community-based organizations, and other grassroots and advocacy organizations to advance the fundamental principles of environmental justice (U.S. Department of Transportation, FHWA, and Federal Transit Administration (FTA)).
Implementing Title VI Requirements in Metropolitan and Statewide Planning is an October 7, 1999, memorandum from the FHWA Administrator to all FHWA Division Administrators and FTA Regional Administrators. Included with this memorandum are a list questions MPOs are frequently asked as part of there FHWA certification review.
Planning Assistant Tool (2004) is divided into three parts: questionnaire, public involvement summary profile, and suggested techniques and considerations. The planning assistant questionnaire leads you through a series of questions on activity description, public involvement purpose and key activities, and schedule and resources. Based on responses to the questionnaire, the planning assistant generates a public involvement summary profile—a report of your inputs—and a list of suggested techniques and considerations. These suggestions displayed are based on their relevance to your public involvement activity.
Income-Based Equity Impacts of Congestion Pricing: A Primer (December 2008) this document, which is part of FHWA's Congestion Pricing Primer Series, examines the impacts of congestion pricing on low-income groups, public opinion as expressed by various income groups, and ways to mitigate the equity impacts of congestion pricing.
Environmental Justice in Transportation: Emerging Trends and Best Practices (June 2011). This document, which is intended for use in training federal and state transportation agency staff, is an analysis of case studies regarding the importance of environmental justice in transportation planning and implementation. The document is organized into four topics addressing transit and affordability, public involvement, livability, and road pricing mechanisms.
Environmental Justice Policy Guidance For Federal Transit Administration Recipients (FTA Circular 4703.1, July 2012). This EJ Circular provides guidance for incorporating environmental justice principles into projects or activities that receive funding from FTA. The document provides recommendations to state departments of transportation, metropolitan planning organizations, public transportation providers, and others on how to engage environmental justice populations in the public transportation decision-making process; how to determine whether environmental justice populations would be subjected to disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects; and how to avoid, minimize, or mitigate these effects.
Memorandum of Understanding on Environmental Justice and Executive Order 12898 (August 2011) Seventeen federal agencies signed this memorandum of understanding to provide annual reports on their efforts to address disproportionate environmental burdens facing poor and minority communities. The agencies will pay particular attention to environmental justice considerations relating to climate adaptation and commercial transportation. The agencies also agreed to address environmental justice considerations when implementing the National Environmental Policy Act and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The memorandum requires the participating agencies to identify any environmental justice impacts from their programs and policies and prepare annual reports on their progress toward alleviating those effects, including performance measures for their efforts and responses to community concerns. Additional information is available on the Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice webpage.
EJView (August 2010) Previously known as the Environmental Justice Geographic Assessment Tool, this updated mapping tool allows users to create maps and generate detailed reports on potential environmental justice concerns based on the geographic areas and data sets of their choice. The tool allows users to overlay demographic, environmental, health, and facility-specific data on a map to produce a snapshot of multiple factors affecting a selected community or region.
Alaska Department of Transportation site has a pull-down menu with a Title VI work plan and policy, and a PowerPoint presentation (dated March 2004) with guidance on environmental justice.
Community Impact Assessment is Volume 4 of California Department of Transportation’s Environmental Handbooks (1997). This document includes key topics such as social, economic and public services impacts, land use, and growth.
Standard Environmental Reference (Chapter 25) is California Department of Transportation’s on-line resource to help state and local agency staff plan, prepare, submit, and evaluate environmental documents for transportation projects. This chapter includes a basic overview of the principals of environmental justice and how they are incorporated into the environmental process. Definitions of minority and low-income populations, and other terms related to environmental justice are presented. Laws, regulations and guidance pertaining to environmental justice are also included within this chapter.
Environmental Justice in Transportation Planning - Phase II is Phase II of Colorado DOT’s Environmental Justice Research Study (December 2003). It includes a review of environmental justice outreach processes based on interviews with local community leaders and representatives, demographics and identification of low-income and minority populations, and an environmental justice guidebook. Environmental Justice Research Study, Phase I and Phase II are available through the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) website.
The I-70 East Corridor Environmental Impact Statement project and the US 36 project in Colorado have prepared memoranda, documents, and presentations related to environmental justice for the projects:
Community Impact Assessment and Environmental Justice for Transit Agencies: A Reference was developed through a grant from the National Center for Transit Research and the Florida Department of Transportation, Public Transit Office. The objectives of the research included identifying information and materials on issues and resources related to environmental justice, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, social equity, and the use of community impact assessment techniques (CIA) in the transit industry. The purpose of this guide is to provide tools, techniques, and references that may be used to assess transit actions.
Urban Campers: A New Population for Community Impact Assessment. A presentation by Gwen Pipkin of Florida DOT and Laurie Potier-Brown of PBS&J on homeless communities located within the proposed right-of-way of Florida DOT’s US 301 project in Sarasota, Florida
This Market Research document was developed for the Indiana Department of Transportation to use as a basis for identifying potential policy, technical analysis, community outreach, and training initiatives.
Hear Every Voice is the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s Public Involvement process (approach, techniques, and case studies), environmental justice guidance, and reports on dialogues with non-traditional stakeholders.
Facilitating Community Participation in the State Ground Transportation Plan Update, Process Documentation details Rhode Island’s Statewide Planning Program’s initial efforts at community participation in transportation planning process. The Statewide Planning Program had prioritized environmental justice as a component of a plan update. It applied a model process by which to achieve greater participation by environmental justice populations in the planning process. Providence Neighborhood Profiles was prepared in support of the Transportation 2020 Update.
“…and Justice for ALL” (September 2001) is Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission’s strategy for fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people. It uses a “degrees of disadvantage” overlay of six indicators – minority, Hispanic, low-income, elderly, transportation dependent (those without vehicles), and handicapped populations using an overlay GIS approach. In addition, the transportation network is overlain (with transit routes having 0.25-mile buffers), and quality of life factors are identified (hospitals, significant employment sites, etc. The Fiscal Year 2005 TIP projects and the 2025 Long-Range Transportation Plan are evaluated based on this overlay approach. Annual updates to the "...And Justice for ALL" report and other planning documents are available on the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission's Publications Database.
Miami-DadeCounty
Miami-Dade County MPO’s Interactive Web-based GIS System helps users determine appropriate public involvement strategies for identified target populations. Its transportation and community mapping is an interactive, web-based GIS System that can be used to generate customized demographic, project related reports for any selected area within Miami-Dade County.
Strings and Ribbons: A Public Involvement Success Story. A presentation made by Karl Welzenbach of the Volusia County MPO (Florida) in January 2005 at Transportation Research Board’s annual meeting in Washington, DC. Stings and Ribbons was the MPO’s primary public involvement tool for its 2025 Long Range Transportation Plan. Detailed information about Strings and Ribbons can be found on the Volusia County MPO’s website.
TCRP Project J06, Task 47,Case Studies in Environmental Justice and Public Transit Title VI Reporting (August 2005) describes five case studies that address examples of environmental justice solutions, and Title VI reporting and implementation that demonstrate commitment to equitable distribution of public transportation resources. One case study focuses on a racial group, American Indian and Alaska Natives, and the other four focus on environmental justice issues related to different geographic areas.
The State of Literacy in America (1998) is a report commissioned by the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) to estimate the number of adults in every city, county, Congressional district, and state with low literacy skills. The report combines 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) data and 1990 Census data.
Age
Aging Americans: Stranded Without Options presents new findings based on the National Household Transportation Survey of 2001 and places them in the context of other research on mobility in the ageing population.
Promising Approaches for Enhancing Elderly Mobility is available for purchase from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute located at 2901 Baxter Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2150 (734) 763-2466.
The Administration on Aging Website includes a eldercare locator that provides the name and location of the local agency on aging by state, county, and/or city of organizations. These local agencies can provide more detailed information on their individual websites; information such as, senior daycare facilities, housing and long-term care facilities, and senior centers as well as scheduled events that could offer :piggyback” opportunities for public involvement activities.
Community Impact Assessment, A Quick Reference for Transportation (1996) was published by FHWA as a quick primer for transportation professionals and analysts who assess the impacts of proposed transportation actions on communities. It outlines the community impact assessment process, highlights critical areas that must be examined, identifies basic tools and information sources, and stimulates the thought-process related to individual projects.
Community Impact Assessment and Environmental Justice for Transit Agencies: A Reference was developed through a grant from the National Center for Transit Research and the Florida Department of Transportation, Public Transit Office. The objectives of the research included identifying information and materials on issues and resources related to environmental justice, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, social equity, and the use of community impact assessment techniques (CIA) in the transit industry. The purpose of this guide is to provide tools, techniques, and references that may be used to assess transit actions.
Community Impact Assessment Handbook: A Handbook for Transportation Professionals expands on FHWA’s Community Impact Assessment: A Quick Reference for Transportation. Provides methods and indicators that practitioners can use to identify and evaluate the community impacts of transportation projects and strategies for reducing adverse impacts.
Community Impact Assessment (CIA) web site seeks to inform transportation officials and the general public about the potential impacts of proposed transportation actions on communities and their subpopulations. Several environmental justice resources are available on this page.
Environmental Justice & Transportation: A Citizen’s Handbook (2003), prepared by the Institute of transportation Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, helps those who are new to transportation policy and projects. The report discusses various approaches to environmental justice along with steps in the planning process when citizen involvement is particularly effective, suggests how environmental Justice can be incorporated into a project, and provides legal requirements for environmental justice.
Data Sources
American FactFinder provides a search feature of the Census Bureau’s web site that helps users locate data quickly and easily. Access to thematic maps and reference maps that include roads and boundary information is available via FactFinders.
EconData.net is designed to help practitioners, researchers, students, and other data users quickly gain access to relevant state and sub state socioeconomic data.
FedStats offers a range of official statistical information made available to the public by the federal government.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service web site provides a variety of thematic maps of county-level information for 1990 and 2000 populations, migration by environmental justice populations, and 1999/2000 labor, education, income, poverty, and welfare.
National Center for Education Statistics provides number of students by race and number of students eligible for the Free and Reduced Price Meals programs for every public school in the nation.
Disaster Planning/Evacuation - Low-income and minority populations often live in areas that are vulnerable to natural disasters because the price of land is cheap. In addition, they are often transportation-dependent because they cannot afford personal transportation. In 2005, the scale of the recent disaster experienced in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has caused a re-evaluation of transportation and land use planning and environmental justice populations.
Lessons From Katrina and Rita, What Major Disasters Can Teach Transportation Planners examines failures in Hurricane Katrina and Rita emergency response and their lessons for transportation planning in other communities. Katrina’s evacuation plan functioned relatively well for motorists but failed to serve people who depended on public transit. Rita’s evacuation plan failed because of excessive reliance on automobiles, resulting in traffic congestion and fuel shortages. Equitable and compassionate emergency response requires special efforts to address the needs of vulnerable residents. Improved emergency response planning can result in more efficient use of available resources. This paper identifies various policy and planning strategies that can help create efficient, equitable, and resilient transport systems.
Louisville and New Orleans discusses the similarities in these two cities. It points out that the conditions that exacerbated the New Orleans disaster—deep, segregated urban poverty—still exist in Louisville and in most major American cities today.
Helping D.C.'s Lower Ninth Wards discusses how the sort of concentrated urban poverty that affected places like New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward resembles Washington, D.C.’s most troubled neighborhoods.
Root Shock Institute’s Assisting Cities During Post-Hurricane Diaspora discusses the often overlooked need to re-knit social connections at the level of the family, the neighborhood, the city and the region. This reconnection serves as a crucial psychiatric function of restoring natural networks that are essential for health and daily functioning.
Limited English Proficiency
How to Engage Low-Literacy and Limited-English-Proficiency Populations in Transportation Decision-making, Federal Highway Administration, February 2006. The recent immigration of non-English speaking populations has added limited English-proficiency to the challenges of conducting a public involvement program and considering issues of environmental justice. The combination of non-English speaking populations and low literacy among English-speaking populations has reinforced the conclusion that “one size fits all” communication techniques are not effective. In order to provide meaningful access to transportation decision-making information, public involvement must be tailored to the population's abilities and constraints. This FHWA report describes tools and techniques that have been successfully used nationwide by Federal, state, MPO, and county agencies and their consultants to identify, locate, and engage low-literacy and limited-English-proficiency populations. It provides information on ways to access reliable data on literacy and limited English proficiency at the sub-State level, and ways to access documented indicators and/or surrogates of literacy and limited-English-proficiency at sub-Sate levels. In addition, it identifies special approaches that are needed to achieve outreach with these populations, the best ways to contact these populations, the impact of low-literacy and limited English proficiency on these populations’ abilities and constraints to participate in public involvement, and how to engage these populations and provide them with meaningful access to decision-making information and opportunities.
Limited English Proficiency Federal Interagency Website, LEP.gov promotes a positive and cooperative understanding of the importance of language access to federally conducted and federally assisted programs. The site acts as a clearinghouse, providing and linking to information, tools, and technical assistance regarding limited English proficiency and language services for federal agencies, recipients of federal funds, users of federal programs, and federally assisted programs, and other stakeholders.
Low Income and Poverty
Children’s Health and the Environment in North America: A First Report on Available Indicators and Measures points to 13 environmental indicators harming the continent’s children. Notable were both indoor and outdoor air pollution, which the report connected to the rising numbers of childhood asthma. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Commission for Environmental Cooperation linked economic status to environmental exposure, showing that children living in poverty are more likely to be exposed to multiple contaminants.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2006 Poverty Guidelines provides the definition of low-income for the Environmental Justice Executive Order. It defines in dollar amounts for family units by number of members in the 48 contiguous states, Hawaii and Alaska. This web site is updated on an annual basis.
Transportation Costs and the American Dream, discusses why a lack of transportation choices strains the family budget and hinders home ownership, a special report of the Surface Transportation Policy Project, July 2003.
Public Health - The relationship between poverty, poor health, and hazardous waste siting has existed for decades. Because of the emphasis that the Executive Order on Environmental Justice places on “human health”, this issue is being re-examined in light of the proximity of environmental justice populations to air pollution, noise, vibration, etc.
Fair and Healthy Land Use - Report published by the American Planning Association Advisory Service, available for purchase (February 2008)
Healthy Community Design Guide - A presentation made by Katherine Kraft, formerly of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, at the September 2005 Regional Community Impact Assessment conference in Trenton, NJ.
Traffic Density and Ethnic Composition in Massachusetts. A paper presented by Rana Charafeddine (Boston University School of Public Health) at 132nd annual meeting of the American Public Health Association conference in Washington, DC (November 2004).
Breathe at Your Own Risk. A presentation by Swati Prakash (WE ACT) at 132nd annual meeting of the American Public Health Association conference in Washington, DC (November 2004).
Race and Ethnicity
African American Yearbook provides information about African American Federal, state, and city elected officials, conventions and events, Federal and state offices of minority health within each state, historically Black colleges and universities, organizations, publications, radio stations, and faith-based organizations by city.
FHWA Native American Program Coordination website provides guidance and technical assistance to federally recognized tribes on a government-to-government basis. The website address issues such as programs, topic areas, state activities, references, tribal planning, tribal programs and tribal technical assistance programs.
FHWA’s Travel Patterns of People of Color (June 2000) provides basic characteristics of travel by people of color. It shows that not only do we need to look at race and ethnicity (especially as it reflects the time from immigration for many Hispanics and Asian residents), but also the combination of gender with race and ethnicity.
Hispanic Yearbook provides information in English and Spanish about Hispanic Federal, state, and city elected officials, conventions and events, Hispanic-serving institutions (colleges and universities), organizations, publications, radio stations, and faith-based organizations by city.
Mobility and Mode Choice of People of Color for Non-Work Travel explains that travel by people of color is of strong policy interest because it is a growing and changing share of the total travel market and is expected to continue to grow much faster than overall travel well into the 21st century.
The EthnoMed site is prepared by Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Washington and provides cultural profiles on several Asian, African, and Hispanic populations.
Equity and Congestion Pricing: A Review of the Evidence. This report features a study sponsored by the Environmental Defense Fund and performed by Rand Corp. that examines equity issues associated with congestion pricing projects, which require motorists to pay higher tolls based on the level of traffic congestion.
Environmental Justice Considerations Involving Toll Roads. Equity issues and transportation have long been intertwined, however, the dependence on tolling revenue to fund and maintain new and existing roadways has placed new emphasis on their effect on environmental justice populations. This is a presentation made by Jimmy Tyree (TxDOT) and Gerald Torres (University of Texas School of Law) at the June 2005 Regional Community Impact Assessment conference held in Scottsdale, AZ.
Environmental Justice in Transportation Planning (1999) is available for purchase from the American Planning Association’s Planners Book Service, 122 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 1600, Chicago, IL 60603, 312-786-6344 (phone), 312-431-9985 (fax)
Economic Perspectives on Transport and Equality, International Transport Forum (May 2011). This paper discusses the economic role of transportation policy in fostering social equality. The paper argues that transportation planning, economic evaluation methods, and governance mechanisms should do a better job of taking into account the potential benefits of transport policy to reduce income disparities and improve living standards.
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