Transit Equity
Monday, July 26, 2010
Transportation links people to places they live, work, learn, shop, receive medical care and play. Therefore transportation infrastructure investment decisions greatly affect our daily lives.
In the next few years, our nation will be making significant decisions about our transportation infrastructure, with major investments from the stimulus package and the federal transportation bill reauthorization. With the increased emphasis on infrastructure investments as a way to stimulate our economy, we have an opportunity to both reform transportation funding and policy -- at the federal, state and local levels -- and ensure that public investments result in benefits distributed equitably, especially in low-income communities and communities of color.
The Alliance's transportation equity work is based on the following principles:
- Increase access to transportation choices, particularly those that improve our environment
- Ensure access to transportation-related jobs for low-income people and people of color
- Ensure people have a variety of ways to move about our region and access employment and housing opportunities
- Ensure that transportation infrastructure investments enhance rather than harm low-income communities and communities of color
- Ensure that the voices of those most affected by historic inequities in transportation policy and funding are heard
The Alliance is working in a variety of ways to ensure our federal, state and local transportation policy reflects these guiding princples.
Transportation Resources
Local Transportation Resources:
Transit funding
Counties Transit Improvement Board - This five-county joint power board (Anoka, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Washington) awards millions of dollars of local funding from a 1/4 cent sales tax for transit projects. This website also has a complete list of the transit projects that are currently built or in the planning phase.
Transit Development
Hennepin County Regional Rail Authority - HCRRA was established as a separate political entity to plan, design and implement light rail transit in Hennepin County. The Board of Commissioners for the authority consists of the seven members of the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners.
Transit Planning
City of Minneapolis Streetcar Plan - In March 2010, the City Council approved the long-term streetcar network identified in the Minneapolis Streetcar Feasibility Study Final Report. This report recommends a long-term streetcar network made of seven of the most heavily used Primary Transit Network corridors that could be implemented in 20-50 years, depending on funding availability.
Transit Policy
Transit for Livable Communities - Transit for Livable Communities is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to reform Minnesota’s transportation system. Through advocacy, community organizing and research, we promote a balanced transportation system that encourages transit, walking, bicycling and thoughtful development.
Center for Transit Oriented Development - The Center for Transit-Oriented Development (C-TOD) is a joint venture with Reconnecting America; the nonprofit Center for Neighborhood Technology, an urban policy and GIS center based in Chicago; and Strategic Economics, an urban economics firm in Berkeley. Here in the Twin Cities, C-TOD convenes the McKnight Foundation Transit-Oriented Development Advisory Committee - a group that includes transit planners from the cities and counties developing transitways; foundations; and regional/national nonprofits that advocate for transitway development.
Central Corridor
1) Community Engagement
District Councils Collaborative of Saint Paul & Minneapolis - Ten St. Paul District Councils and five Minneapolis Neighborhood Associations have joined together in a collaborative association designed to facilitate neighborhood participation in shaping the direction of future Central Corridor light rail development. They are the lead organization in creating a series of community agreements around the development of the Central Corridor working through a community based coordinating committee.
Stops for Us Coalition - The Alliance for Metropolitan Stability was a member of the Stops for Us coalition, which helped secure three missing light rail stations that will serve low-income communities along the Central Corridor.
2) Funding
Central Corridor Funders Collaborative - The Central Corridor Funders Collaborative is a group of local and national funders working with others to unlock the transformative potential of the new light rail transit line along the Central Corridor between Saint Paul and Minneapolis. One of their projects is the Business Resources Collaborative (BRC), which is a partnership of business coalitions, nonprofit community developers and local governments that bridges various community-led planning efforts addressing business and economic development in the Central Corridor.
3) Energy Innovation Corridor
The Energy Innovation Corridor was formed to create a sustainable energy and transportation showcase along the Central Corridor. The Energy Innovation Corridor will advance critical local, state, regional and federal efforts to invest in alternative and renewable energy, address global climate change and create new jobs.
Cultural Corridors
American Indian Cultural and Economic Corridor - This is a transit-oriented development plan next to the Franklin Avenue Station on the Hiawatha LRT, being planned by the Native American Community Development Institute.
National Transportation Resources
Federal Agencies
HUD-DOT-EPA Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities - On June 16, 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) joined with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U. S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to help improve access to affordable housing, more transportation options, and lower transportation costs while protecting the environment in communities nationwide. Through a set of guiding livability principles and a partnership agreement that will guide the agencies' efforts, this partnership will coordinate federal housing, transportation and other infrastructure investments to protect the environment, promote equitable development and help to address the challenges of climate change.
Federal Highway Administration/Federal Transit Administration Environmental Justice website - A 1994 Presidential Executive Order directed every Federal agency to make environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing the effects of all programs, policies, and activities on "minority populations and low-income populations." The DOT's environmental justice initiatives accomplish this goal by involving the potentially affected public in developing transportation projects that fit harmoniously within their communities without sacrificing safety or mobility.
National Policy Resources
Environmental Justice in Transportation Toolkit
Transportation Equity Network: Public Transportation as a Civil Right
Environmental Justice and the Green Economy: A Vision Statement and Case Studies for Just and Sustainable Solutions in English and Spanish at www.weact.org. Additional information is available at http://ejstimulus.wordpress.com/.
National Case Studies
Los Angeles CA: Bus Riders Union 1996
Oakland CA: Oakland Airport Connector 2010