UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge

This report documents UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge’s development of a statewide database and data/mapping portal that displays census-tract level information related to transportation disparities. The selected indicators are based on the existing literature and previous research on the causes, characteristics, and consequences of transportation inequality. The project covers vehicle ownership, public transit, active transportation, and transportation networks. The information is designed for decision makers, public agencies, and community groups that are working to address systematic disparities in transportation access, including their root causes and outcomes.  

Access the Transportation Disparities data mapping tool here.

With many schools closed and students working remotely amid the COVID-19 pandemic, this report by CNK indicates improved access to computers and the internet during the Fall school term, but confirms a continuing and persistent digital divide, especially for Black, Hispanic and low -income students.

Using data from the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey, the research shows the rate of limited digital access for households fell from a high of 42 percent amid the panic and chaos of the closure of schools last Spring to about 31 percent this fall.  However, the data also shows that since mid-October the rate of inaccessibility has increased slowly but unmistakably. The researchers are concerned that the divide may worsen amid a surge in COVID-19 infections and resulting restrictions.

This study examines the consequences of freeway construction on neighborhoods of color across California, with a focus on socioeconomic changes, route selection, community reactions and resistance, and the disruptions to residents, businesses, and other assets. Expanding on three prior case studies conducted by the research team, this study incorporates three additional case studies: South Colton, West Fresno, and City Heights in San Diego. The construction of freeways was a contributing mechanism to the perpetuation of racial inequality, weakening social institutions, disrupting local economies, and physically dividing neighborhoods. However, the outcomes varied across locations. In South Colton, a freeway was ultimately not built through its community of color, though largely for reasons of construction costs. City Heights, initially a predominantly non-Hispanic white neighborhood, underwent a demographic transformation driven by white flight during a decades-long pause in freeway construction. West Fresno did face consequences from freeway development but was also unique in its diversity of residents pre-freeway, including people of color and non-Hispanic white immigrant communities. Freeway development contributed to transforming West Fresno into an overwhelming community of color. Across these cases, freeways fragmented communities, displaced residents, and reinforced pre-existing racial divides. These racialized impacts stemmed from systemic socioeconomic marginalization and exclusion of people of color in the planning process. Today, public investments aimed at reconnecting communities offer an opportunity to address the enduring harms caused by freeways. However, achieving meaningful progress will require the integration of restorative justice principles into the planning and decision-making processes.