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The decisions we make every day as transportation professionals can impact quality of life, access to opportunities, and can result in systemic inequities in our communities. This became very clear as we adapted to new norms throughout the pandemic. The undeniable evidence of disproportionate impacts has been eye-opening. We need to act now and revisit our practices and perspective of success in profession and at a new crossroads-recognizing the consequences of the past- take a new path that radically innovates the way we think, assess, and shipment.
Acknowledging the consequences of prior actions is the first step on the path towards building a transportation system for all users of all abilities, and prioritizing the needs of historically disadvantaged communities. As transportation planners and engineers, we must acknowledge our part in the mistakes of the past and strive to self-correct those policies, programs, and practices that can greatly address and prevent further inequities in the built environment.
It is important to remind ourselves that transportation is not important for what it is (roads, bridges, trains, and planes). Transportation is important for what it does-it gets people to where they need to go and connects people to community and opportunity. More than ever, how we define transportation, and how we plan, design, operate, and measure its effectiveness in today's society needs to be revisited by our industry. Thinking about the purpose of transportation and properly incorporating an equity lens on its outcomes to the communities it serves will allow for an intentional refocus on effective strategies moving forward.
So what needs to change? Many of our standard practices need to be reexamined, starting with a transportation department's organizational structure, as well as reassessing our long-standing processes in transportation from planning through construction management. We need to realign transportation goals with community visions and other jurisdiction-wide goals, such as sustainability, to leverage transportation resources as a tool to help underprivileged communities.
Our comprehensive plans normally align transportation goals with other jurisdictional goals, but the performance measures and strategies often emphasize mobility improvements based on system performance only, without considering safe and reliable community connections to essential services. Safe access to reliable transportation service for residents who cannot afford a private automobile needs to be a higher priority in...