Transportation & environmental justice : effective practices

2002PDFManualFHWA-EP-02-016Environmental justiceTransportation policyTransportation planningMinoritiesPublic participationCivil rightsUnited StatesUnited States. Federal Highway AdministrationShepherd, GloriaWheeler, RobertDiggs, DanyellAimen, DavidFitzroy, SteveUnited States. Federal Highway AdministrationUnited States. Federal Transit AdministrationNTL-PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION-PUBLIC TRANSPORTATIONNTL-PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION-Transit Planning and PolicyNTL-PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION-Social ImpactsNTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATIONNTL-FREIGHT-Freight Planning and PolicyNTL-ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT-Environment ImpactsNTL-ECONOMICS AND FINANCE-Economic ImpactsNTL-PLANNING AND POLICY-Land UseNTL-PLANNING AND POLICY-Management SystemsNTL-PLANNING AND POLICY-Public Participation and OutreachFederal Highway AdministrationThe essence of effective environmental justice practice is summarized in three fundamental principles: (1) Avoid, minimize, or mitigate disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental effects, including social and economic effects, on minority populations and low-income populations; (2) Ensure the full and fair participation by all potentially affected communities in the transportation decision-making process; and (3) Prevent the denial of, reduction in, or significant delay in the receipt of benefits by minority and low-income populations. The FHWA and the FTA have embraced these principles as a means of improving transportation decision-making. Today, effective transportation decision-making requires understanding and addressing the unique needs of many different socioeconomic groups. The FHWA and the FTA have already developed a wide variety of environmental justice technical assistance and training materials intended for Federal transportation agency staff, State Departments of Transportation, Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), transit providers and other interested stakeholders and partners. With this booklet the FHWA and the FTA have brought together many recent and intriguing examples of the ways in which States, MPOs, and transit service providers are integrating the principles of environmental justice into their many activities. While touching upon the obligations of transportation agencies to address Title VI and environmental justice, the booklet's primary emphasis is on sharing the experiences of transportation agencies working toward the accomplishment of environmental justice in programs, plans, projects and other activities. The booklet's examples are organized into separate chapters by the various stages of transportation decision making from Planning and Project Development, to Right-of-Way, Construction, and Operations and Maintenance. A separate chapter on Public Involvement is also provided that features some noteworthy practices, but public involvement processes are so central to environmental justice and good proactive planning that descriptions of involvement and outreach processes crosscut through all the chapters and many of the examples