The pursuit of transportation justice and racial equity will get a big boost thanks to the work of a local team of academics and researchers. And the timing is good as the Portland Bureau of Transportation works to expand its efforts in this area.
Late last month the Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University announced they received a $250,000 Federal Highway Administration grant to create a “Research Roadmap for Institutionalizing Transportation Equity.”
Here’s how TREC explains the project:
All people, regardless of their background, income, or physical abilities, need access to safe, affordable, and convenient transportation options and services. State departments of transportation and their partner regional planning organizations seek to improve the equity outcomes of their decision-making practices and investments. The research roadmap will help define broad research areas and gaps for further study, along with specific research problem statements that have urgent, near-term significance.
TREC’s project will be led by Aaron Golub, a professor in the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning at PSU. The research team will include noted bicycle researchers Jennifer Dill and Nathan McNeil, as well as Amy Lubitow, a researcher who’s studied the transportation experiences of marginalized cyclists in Portland.
This research project will likely be watched very closely by PBOT. They’ve been leaning into their work on racial equity and transportation justice — especially since the George Floyd protests in the summer of 2020 when they vowed to become an “antiracist” organization.
Despite hiring their first equity and inclusion manager in 2015, PBOT didn’t address structural racism and racial justice head-on in a formal way until their 2019-2022 strategic plan. That plan included a full section on transportation justice (they use “transportation justice” and “transportation equity” interchangeably) and unveiled “Will it address structural racism?” as one of the two questions they think about as they go about their every aspect of their work (“Will it reduce carbon emissions?” is the other) . PBOT described the value of inclusivity in that 2019 strategic plan, but they didn’t share a clear definition of transportation justice.
Now PBOT has taken their work on this topic up yet another notch. The latest update of their strategic plan includes a new “transportation justice framework” they say is meant to create a “toolbox of resources” that will help:
- Ensure all staff are familiar with existing transportation-related disparities in our communities;
- Equip them with tools and prompts to advance and operationalize transportation justice across our work;
- Empower PBOT teams to provide equitable services to historically underserved communities; and
- Keep us accountable to our goal of becoming an anti-racist organization.
Also new from PBOT is a working draft definition of transportation justice:
Transportation Justice refers to the elimination of disparities in our mobility and interconnected systems (equity) as well as a transformative and liberating redistribution of power, resources, and opportunities (justice) to those experiencing the greatest disparities today to ensure that all Portlanders use and enjoy the same access to safe, reliable, equitable, sustainable, and affordable transportation options.
Who are people in Portland PBOT says have “historically been burdened by unjust and racist policies and decisions”? Their list includes: “Portlanders who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), people with disabilities, households living on low incomes, as well as all those community members who are multilingual, immigrants, refugees, LGBTQIA+, and/or displaced.”
PBOT has also drafted a list of principles that guide their commitment to transportation justice:
- Transportation Justice principles:
- Moving beyond equity (eliminating disparities) towards justice (redistributing power, resources, and opportunities)
- Recognizing past and existing injustice and accepting that the past is never dead
- Co-creating solutions with historically underserved communities and envisioning liberation through their lens
- Addressing past harm and mitigating structural pains at all stages of our work
- Acknowledging the interconnectedness of systems
- Centering race and applying “targeted universalism” (in which we prioritize addressing the needs of those experiencing the greatest disparities, which in turn maximizes benefits)
- Committing to intersectionality
- Putting people first (adopting a human-centered approach)
- Applying results-based accountability
On a related note, a PBOT employee has been selected as a “Transportation Justice Fellow” by Better Bike Share, a national nonprofit.
Learn more about the TREC research project here. Learn more about PBOT’s transportation justice efforts here.