Transportation decisions can either deepen environmental, socioeconomic, and health inequalities, or serve to improve quality of life. It is critical for the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) to establish consistent, evidence-based processes for identifying communities impacted by inequitable transportation construction, policies, and investments. An implementable methodology based on best practices must be developed to analyze inequitable transportation impacts and provide a path forward for addressing and mitigating inequitable transportation outcomes. This method must be designed to capture before-and-after impacts at the community level, including a consistent collection of current and historical data at the community scale with a statewide coverage area.
In an effort to support NCDOT’s goal of providing an equitable transportation system to all North Carolinians, the research team has developed a plan that will establish a methodological framework NCDOT can use to identify and address transportation inequity at the community level. The research team proposes an approach that includes:
- Conducting a comprehensive literature and state of the practice review to inform a matrix of best practices,
- Developing a definition for “transportation inequity”,
- Performing an extensive data review and gap analysis to capture existing data and geospatial coverage,
- Conducting case studies of communities impacted by transportation inequity, and
- Developing a methodological framework that can be implemented to identify and address both historical and potential transportation inequities.
