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their personal empowerment and desire to participate . Every audience wants to have a seat at the table and be heard - especially populations that have not traditionally participated in public decision-making .
The history of inequity in transportation planning
The recent efforts to produce equitable outcomes reflect awareness of the impact that transportation decisions have on all communities - and the fact that marginalized communities haven ’ t always had a say in that impact . Agencies now proactively looking for approaches to improve equity are also helping turn the page from top-down and paternalistic transportation planning and decision-making too often seen in underserved communities and communities of color . This lack of public involvement in past transportation planning has often resulted in glaring inequities in communities of color and low-income residents , including “… freeway construction destroying Black and brown neighborhoods , federal funding policies for public transit that favor rail expansion
to affluent suburban communities rather than urban transit service improvements , land use decisions that focus on polluting truck traffic in communities of color , and inequitable traffic law enforcement .”
This effort to redress these kinds of inequities is driving equity in policy at all levels , seen most recently in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act , new federal legislation that specifically addresses rebuilding transportation networks with a focus on “… resilience , equity , and safety for all users .” And public agencies at state and local levels are also looking for ways to advance equity in their transportation decisions , and not replicate decisions of the past that have often “ excluded or divided communities … particularly for transit-dependent populations in minority and low-income neighborhoods .”
Developing public outreach to ensure equitable outcomes
The history of big , sweeping legislation to address historic inequities in this country , such as the Civil Rights Act , the National Environmental Policy Act ,
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