University of California Transportation Center

Equity and environmental justice issues have again become prominent topics of debate in transportation planning and research in the last ten years. Advocates for environmental justice – for short, EJ – have made themselves highly visible in many transportation planning and decision-making processes, in some cases seeking seats at the table and in other cases using protest, political pressure, and legal action to force change. Transportation practitioners have responded in many different ways, in some cases by forming partnerships for new programs serving low income and minority populations and in other cases resisting the perceived challenges to their expertise and authority. Researchers have been heavily involved, providing technical documentation for and against the varying claims of the parties and examining EJ activities as a topic for research.