Transportation Problems and Policy (2020)

In this blog post, I summarize the TREC seminar presentation Biking While Black: How Planning Contributes to Unjust Policing by Jesus M. Barajas from UC Davis on October 9, 2020. The research was initiated by Equiticity, a mobility justice non-profit located in Chicago. The high-profile killings of unarmed black men and women at the hands of police this year (George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many more ) in addition to those before has contributed to a heightened awareness of police violence towards communities of color and the systems that reinforce their marginalization. The bicycle planning field is not exempt from a wholesale reevaluation of its policy frameworks and priorities to be anti-racist. As a white person who needs to increase their knowledge about mobility justice and racism in transportation, I found this presentation a good place to start. Here’s the breakdown of the points: Cyclist fatalities have increased 38% over the last decade Black and Latino cyclists are ov...

Another class I am taking, Public Space, involves a term-long project analyzing aspects of PBOT’s response to COVID-19 for businesses, the Healthy Business Permit . An expansion of the Safe Streets Initiative, the program offers free, temporary permits and some assistance for businesses to take over sidewalks, parking spaces, or street space in order to effectively operate while complying with statewide public health directives (of course, they are “temporarily” closed right now, due to Governor Brown’s order as a result in a massive increase in cases in the metro and across Oregon). All in all, where the permits have been utilized, the program has been considered successful.   While the initiative is exciting as a broader opportunity to discuss the use of streets as public spaces beyond people moving (and one to discuss the role of PBOT as a steward of some of the most accessible public spaces in the city), it is not without its drawbacks. Due to the nature ...

I’ve always been interested in thinking about what the world will look like in the future. In fact, one of the things that I enjoy most about the field of urban planning is the long-range thinking. In many ways, us urban planners are futurists because we try to shape the social, political, and physical environment to meet the needs of the future. Predicting the future isn’t easy but, in my experience, urban planners also tend to be optimists (or at least cynical idealists) and so we’re never short of opinions about how things will unfold in the coming years. This passion for long-range thinking/dreaming is why I’m drawn to the subreddit  r/Retrofuturism . It’s a collection of illustrations in pop culture and media that depict what the people in the past thought the future would look like.* The zany, wildly misplaced predictions from the past are both funny and entertaining to look at. However, I also believe that there is value to be gained in perusing this eclectic corner of t...

Above is a map of the three counties (Bastrop, Travis, Williamson) that are served by Capital Metro (Austin, TX). I was curious about spatial patterns that may exist between the commute time of workers over the age of 16 and the location of transit stops. I focused on commute times greater than 30 minutes, assuming that an ideal commute would be under 30 minutes. Transit stops in this example include all modes of public transit currently offered by Capital Metro (bus, brt, light rail). Data was pulled from the 2014-2018 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates via Social Explorer. Shape files for census tracts where pulled from the U.S. Census Bureau website and shape files for Capital Metro transit stops were pulled from their official website. Transit stops are densely located around/in the central business district. The share of commute time greater than 30 minutes in this area is consistently below 30%. This indicates that an overwhelming majority of commute times in this are...

 Transportation Equity is a huge part of planning for transportation projects and rightly so. It is hard to invite all people at the table though which is why there are people who's job it is to do outreach and come up with potential social and economical issues that projects might have on people and it goes beyond that because there are short term and long term consequences to policies or projects. For example, the dilemma of congestion pricing. Freeways are currently free to use but they have had and currently have negative impacts on those who cannot afford to have a car. Alternatively, placing congestion charges negatively impacts those people who can barely afford a car but have to get to work regardless. This brings up an important point that the market economy applies to everyone, there is no such thing as price equity or affirmative action in the free market and if there was there would be loopholes. Regardless, most people or working class people, have to get to work to su...

At the Friday Transportation Seminar on October 25, 2019, Michael Manville discussed Equity and Congestion Pricing . The lecture was fantastic, and time-strapped readers can find a written post that hits many of the key points. Manville begins his lecture focusing not on congestion pricing but asking a more key question – how equitable is our current system? Do free roads serve the poor? Rightly, he concludes that the current system disproportionately benefits with wealthy and burdens the poor. First, everyone is caught in congestion currently, rich or poor. But not everyone is equally caught in congestion. Rich can choose to live in more accessible neighborhoods and choose to drive, whereas low-income households are increasingly displaced to the suburbs and to congestion. The freeways are routed through low-income neighborhoods and bring their major health impacts to those neighborhoods, from increased asthma to low birth weights. These health outcomes primarily fall on the poor. Fur...

This past TREC Friday Transportation Seminar dealt with the intersection of safety, race, and transportation. Charlene McGee, the current program manager for REACH (Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health) with Multnomah County, spoke on the glaring public health disparities amongst the African-American/Black population in Multnomah County and noted transportation as a social determinant of health.  In Multnomah County, African-Americans account for about seven percent of the population. Yet data shows higher percentages of poorer health conditions for African-American adults in comparison to White adults. In regards to the disparities, 17 percent of African-American adults live with diabetes, compared to seven percent of White adults, and when it comes to obesity, 43 percent for African-American adults versus 22 percent for White adults.  Furthermore, the leading causes of death amongst African-Americans; heart disease, cancer, accidents (unintentional injuries), cer...

At the Friday Transportation Seminar on November 6, 2020, Charlene McGee discussed the intersections of safety, race, and transportation. McGee, who works as the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) Program Director, outlined the REACH program, aligned the program with transportation as a social determinant of health, and offered recommendations and action items to bridge racial, health, and transportation equity. REACH’s strategy, which focuses on health equity through culturally tailored strategies in community-based participatory and evidence-based approaches, can offer a lot to transportation planners in working toward inclusive, equitable outcomes.   McGee discussed the links between chronic illness, physical activity, and the built environment. This overlaps the historic context of racist planning and its effects on urban form, gentrification, and displacement. Of four chronic diseases, four have direct links to the built environment: heart disease, cancer...