Topic - TREC Friday Seminar - Biking While Black: How Planning Contributes to Unjust Policing
I attended TREC’s Friday Seminar - Biking While Black: How Planning Contributes to Unjust Policing. Professor Jesus Barajas from UC Davis spoke about how city planning creates and enforces overpolicing of communities of color. “Illegal behaviors are rational responses to planning deficiencies”. This was something that stood out to me during the presentation. Cities have failed to provide necessary street infrastructure to create safe neighborhoods for communities of color. As Professor Barajas stated, most high-crash intersections are located in areas with high concentrations of low-income and/or communities of color. Also, in Portland specifically, neighborhood greenways are largely located on the west side of 82nd Ave. These things combined create a situation where people have no choice but to intentionally break minor laws such as biking on sidewalks or biking in the wrong direction. I read two articles related to safety and bike advocacy that provided great background knowledge before attending the seminar. “Achieving Vision Zero: Data-Driven Investment Strategy to Eliminate Pedestrian Fatalities on a Citywide Level” provided a great overview of research done to create a data-driven approach to improving pedestrian safety in San Francisco. The article compares infrastructure improvements of varying costs and effectiveness. However, racial and economic equity was noticeably absent from the report.The Bloomberg article “Bike Advocacy’s Blind Spot” is an interview with bike advocate Adonia Lugo who shares her experiences as a person of color advocating for more inclusive bike policies. She highlights the history of bike culture as something for the elites of America and how that history impacts bike policies and infrastructure today. I hope future transportation seminars will provide more insight into giving communities of color a voice in planning decisions and creating safe streets for those communities.
Link to PSU TREC Friday Transportation Seminar:
Sources:
Kronenberg, Chava, Woodward, Lucas, DuBose, Brooke, & Weissman, Dana. (2015). Achieving Vision Zero: Data-Driven Investment Strategy to Eliminate Pedestrian Fatalities on a Citywide Level. Transportation Research Record, 2519(1), 146–156. https://doi.org/10.3141/2519-16
Bloomberg / CityLab – “Bike Advocacy’s Blind Spot”. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-19/for-bike-equity-look-past-infrastructure
Thanks for this post Anne, I noticed this seminar come through on TREC's website as well. The quote you pull out, "illegal behaviors are rational responses to planning deficiencies" is an insightful one. I think you would appreciate the work of the Untokening Project:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.untokening.org/updates/2017/11/11/untokening-10-principles-of-mobility-justice
They talk about the concept of mobility justice and define it as the 'examination of the context and options available to communities and what investments beyond street infrastructure would make more sustainable modes of transit more tenable.' They also state that "until many past wrongs and inequities are addressed, pursuit of mobility justice for marginalized communities may involve looking beyond individual choices about transportation modes to deeply related issues like housing instability, job options, and over policing."
I definitely think that the jobs in the transportation planning field skew inordinately toward jobs relating to infrastructure, when, as these folks are saying, more need to be related to programs and transportation-adjacent issues.
Hi Ann,
ReplyDeleteThe information you present here is interesting. I agree that the built infrastructure in communities of color and low income tend to push community members to break minor laws. I think it is essential to recognize that racial and social classes must be considered when planning for infrastructure improvements.
Not sure if you've seen PedPDX's news blog from March 12, 2019, "Walking While Black." (https://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/article/725213) The article compares the existing sidewalk presences from PBOT's Equity Matrix map showing the disproportionate accessibility to safe sidewalks for communities of color and low-income. Although PedPDX took feedback from the community, they only heard from 2% of identified as African American (5.7% represent Portland's overall population). To me, it brings the questions of why they missed such important representation from the Black community. Furthermore, this article notes the existing implications/experience of those "Walking While Black" in Portland, highlighting the barriers they experience. Noting that poor lighting, sidewalks/walking paths missing on BUSY streets, people driving too fast on busy streets, not enough safe places to cross busy streets, people driving too fast on residential streets, sidewalks/walking paths missing on residential streets, drivers not stopping for pedestrians crossing the street, buckled/cracked/uplifted sidewalks, or other tripping hazards, missing curb ramps at intersections, not enough time to cross streets, are all conditions that make walking difficult in Portland.
I agree that there needs to be more consideration and representation of marginalized communities to impact bike policies and infrastructure projects.
Thanks for your insight!
Hi Ann, thanks for your post. In addition to the important takeaways for planners, one thing that comes to mind regarding the over policing of behaviors is just a broader ethos I believe we utilize in this country. "There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect." Planners have work to do that meets the needs of communities, but more than that we must ensure that compliance isn't built around enforcement.
ReplyDeleteGreat post and discussion. Thanks, Ann and commenters! HEre's the link to the web map of crashes by user type that I mentioned in our class meeting: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=5385b143768c445db915a9c7fad32ebe
ReplyDeleteThe patterns are worth a look, if not unexpected. You also raise a good point I didn't make about Vision Zero that I think is a positive overall: a focus on data-driven decisions and better data.