Analysis of the Environmental Justice Compliance of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)

Environmental Justice (EJ) derives its principles and foundation from Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Executive Order 12898, issued in 1994 mandated all agencies receiving federal funds to be environmental justice compliant. According to this Order, Environmental Justice compliance ensures that the minorities, ethnic population groups as well as the low-income population in a region are not adversely affected due to the implementation of programs funded with federal dollars. This paper presents a framework to evaluate the EJ-compliance of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), specifically focusing on the CTA’s capital program. The CTA has divided its service area into six zones in order to facilitate allocation of capital funds. It is the objective of this paper to analyze the CTA service area with the help of the decennial census. The analysis will identify the neighborhoods that have a significant percent of the target minority or low-income population, referred to as “EJ neighborhoods”. The “EJ neighborhoods” will be compared versus the “non-EJ neighborhoods ” to test the equitable allocation of funds. The criteria for identifying the EJ neighborhoods depend upon the definition of the target population and while there is considerable variation amongst researchers about these definitions, this paper will acknowledge these differences and will make use of the most commonly accepted definitions in identifying these target population groups. The results from this research will help the CTA in ensuring that the needs of the minorities and the low-income are acknowledged and accounted for in the planning process