Equitable transportation is a fundamental civil right of every individual if an agency receives federal grants-in-aid. The gaps in transportation planning, implementation of projects, and resulting differences in service opportunities for certain population groups and for people living in certain areas with access limitations for quicker delivery has become even more evident during the current Pandemic. Considering and appropriately addressing equity in the long range transportation planning allows agencies like NCDOT to respond to the needs of all transportation system users, at all times, and accomplish the goal of equitable transportation. However, there is limited guidance available for conducting systematic and integrated transportation equity analysis for long range transportation planning. Furthermore, there are some data and performance evaluation challenges that require solutions prior to adopting equity measures in long range transportation planning across the state. The objectives of this research, therefore, are: 1) to review the recent developments in transportation equity related research, also the ongoing research initiative “RP 2022-17: Including Equity in Benefit-Cost Analysis" and identify the best practices, existing gaps, limitations, and challenges; 2) to survey the staff of metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), rural planning organizations (RPOs), and other state departments of transportation (DOTs) as well as conduct focus grouping meetings and gather information on how best can be equity addressed in the early stages of long range transportation planning as well as for timely delivery of perishable necessary goods to all; 3) to identify data, data sources, specific performance measures, and evaluation tools for equity analysis in long range transportation planning; and 4) to develop guidelines and to propose a complementary methodology that can be applied to ensure equity is appropriately addressed during project proposal development/ alternatives analysis for long range transportation planning in North Carolina.z
