Legislating Racial Equity Impact Studies in Transportation and Infrastructure Policy

Times of great social unrest offer an opportunity to dismantle broken systems and build new, more equitable systems in their place. Racial justice advocates have called for a Third Reconstruction to address the systemic racism and inequality at our nation’s core. One component of a Third Reconstruction should be a focus on community equity as a critical component of racial justice. We need to identify and challenge the institutions and policies in our cities that far too often make them inhospitable to economic opportunity for communities of color. Among the critical drivers of inequality, racial segregation, and concentrated poverty in our cities are transportation policy and infrastructure development. The late United States Congressman John Lewis once wrote, “the legacy of Jim Crow transportation is still with us. Even today, some of our transportation policies and practices destroy stable neighborhoods, isolate and segregate our citizens in deteriorating neighborhoods, and fail to provide access to jobs and economic growth centers.” The benefits and burdens of all aspects of our transportation system – highways, roads, bridges, sidewalks, and public transit – have been planned, developed, and maintained to segregate people of color, making it difficult for them to take advantage of society’s opportunities or to access employment, education, and economic resources.