Environmental Justice in Transportation Planning and Policy: A View From Practitioners and Other Stakeholders in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Region

Abstract

This paper examines the views of practitioners and other stakeholders in the Baltimore-Washington, DC metropolitan region regarding environmental justice. Qualitative interviews were conducted with transportation planners, policymakers, managers and other stakeholders in transportation planning and policy. The findings indicate the public agencies, private consulting firms, quasi-public agencies, grassroots and advocacy groups, community organizations, and the general public are the primary stakeholders in transportation-related environmental justice issues. While public officials focus on environmental justice issues primarily because of federal regulations, grassroots advocacy groups do so because these issues are part of their agency's goals and mission. Human agency also plays a significant role in determining the level of concern for environmental justice and other equity issues among public agencies. Although citizen participation is an integral part of environmental justice in transportation planning and project development, identifying vulnerable groups and reaching out to them is a difficult task. Obstacles to implementing environmental justice principles include the lack of standards and regulatory guidance in the planning process and the lack of data to identify groups that could benefit from environmental justice legislation. The findings also indicate that advocacy group members and the transit-dependent population believe that inequity and disparity still exists in the provision of transportation and transportation infrastructure services.