IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/transp/v52y2025i3d10.1007_s11116-023-10442-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Different journeys, same struggle: practitioner experiences in environmental justice policy, assessment, and decision-making

Author

Listed:
  • Collin Yarbrough

    (SMU Lyle School of Engineering)

  • Janille Smith-Colin

    (SMU Lyle School of Engineering)

Abstract

Over the past two decades, environmental justice (EJ) has been seen as an important concept for ensuring transportation infrastructure planning does not perpetuate a legacy of disproportionately impacting low income and/or minority communities in the United States. However, state-centered EJ research often focuses on quantitative methods for carrying out EJ analysis, focusing less on qualitative assessments of agency practitioners responsible for performing EJ work. We present a qualitative case study grounded in semi-structured interviews with nineteen EJ and community impact assessment practitioners at state departments of transportation (DOTs) across the United States. Four major themes arose surrounding practitioner role specialization, agency context, tool and data availability, and assessment of disproportionate impacts. Challenges and opportunities identified in the study provide practitioners and state DOTs with operational lenses to evaluate how to further justice and equity in the transportation project delivery process.

Suggested Citation

  • Collin Yarbrough & Janille Smith-Colin, 2025. "Different journeys, same struggle: practitioner experiences in environmental justice policy, assessment, and decision-making," Transportation, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 871-893, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:transp:v:52:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s11116-023-10442-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s11116-023-10442-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11116-023-10442-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11116-023-10442-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Douglas S. Noonan, 2008. "Evidence of Environmental Justice: A Critical Perspective on the Practice of EJ Research and Lessons for Policy Design," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 89(5), pages 1153-1174, December.
    2. Manaugh, Kevin & Badami, Madhav G. & El-Geneidy, Ahmed M., 2015. "Integrating social equity into urban transportation planning: A critical evaluation of equity objectives and measures in transportation plans in North America," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 167-176.
    3. Brett Baden & Douglas Noonan & Rama Mohana Turaga, 2007. "Scales of justice: Is there a geographic bias in environmental equity analysis?," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(2), pages 163-185.
    4. Karen Lucas & Ian Philips & Ersilia Verlinghieri, 2022. "A mixed methods approach to the social assessment of transport infrastructure projects," Transportation, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 271-291, February.
    5. Dian Nostikasari & Colleen Casey, 2020. "Institutional Barriers in the Coproduction of Knowledge for Transportation Planning," Planning Theory & Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(5), pages 671-691, October.
    6. Rowangould, Dana & Karner, Alex & London, Jonathan, 2016. "Identifying environmental justice communities for transportation analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 151-162.
    7. Davis, Coray & Jha, Manoj K., 2011. "A dynamic modeling approach to investigate impacts to protected and low-income populations in highway planning," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(7), pages 598-610, August.
    8. Thomopoulos, N. & Grant-Muller, S. & Tight, M.R., 2009. "Incorporating equity considerations in transport infrastructure evaluation: Current practice and a proposed methodology," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 351-359, November.
    9. Mouter, Niek & Koster, Paul & Dekker, Thijs, 2021. "Contrasting the recommendations of participatory value evaluation and cost-benefit analysis in the context of urban mobility investments," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 54-73.
    10. Schwanen, Tim & Lucas, Karen & Akyelken, Nihan & Cisternas Solsona, Diego & Carrasco, Juan-Antonio & Neutens, Tijs, 2015. "Rethinking the links between social exclusion and transport disadvantage through the lens of social capital," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 123-135.
    11. David Martínez-Muñoz & Jose V. Martí & Víctor Yepes, 2022. "Social Impact Assessment Comparison of Composite and Concrete Bridge Alternatives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-19, April.
    12. Karner, Alex, 2016. "Planning for transportation equity in small regions: Towards meaningful performance assessment," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 46-54.
    13. Handy, Susan, 2008. "Regional transportation planning in the US: An examination of changes in technical aspects of the planning process in response to changing goals," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 113-126, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Krapp, Agustina & Barajas, Jesus & Wennink, Audrey, 2021. "Equity-oriented Criteria for Project Prioritization in Regional Transportation Planning," SocArXiv xcbhy, Center for Open Science.
    2. Linovski, Orly & Baker, Dwayne Marshall & Manaugh, Kevin, 2018. "Equity in practice? Evaluations of equity in planning for bus rapid transit," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 75-87.
    3. Sharma, Ishant & Mishra, Sabyasachee & Golias, Mihalis M. & Welch, Timothy F. & Cherry, Christopher R., 2020. "Equity of transit connectivity in Tennessee cities," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    4. Linovski, Orly & Manaugh, Kevin & Baker, Dwayne Marshall, 2022. "The route not taken: Equity and transparency in unfunded transit proposals," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 77-84.
    5. Maxwell Cabello & Michael Hyland & Nicholas Marantz, 2025. "From state of the practice to state of the art: improving equity analysis in regional transportation plans," Transportation, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 791-826, June.
    6. Heyer, Johanna & Palm, Matthew & Niemeier, Deb, 2020. "Are we keeping up? Accessibility, equity and air quality in regional planning," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    7. Mouter, Niek & Koster, Paul & Dekker, Thijs, 2021. "Contrasting the recommendations of participatory value evaluation and cost-benefit analysis in the context of urban mobility investments," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 54-73.
    8. Fried, Travis & Verma, Rishi & Goodchild, Anne, 2024. "Ecommerce and environmental justice in metro Seattle," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    9. Karner, Alex, 2016. "Planning for transportation equity in small regions: Towards meaningful performance assessment," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 46-54.
    10. Niek Mouter & Paul Koster & Thijs Dekker, 2019. "Participatory Value Evaluation versus Cost-Benefit Analysis: comparing recommendations in the context of urban mobility investments," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 19-046/VIII, Tinbergen Institute, revised 27 Jan 2020.
    11. Aryana Soliz, 2021. "Creating Sustainable Cities through Cycling Infrastructure? Learning from Insurgent Mobilities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-21, August.
    12. Banzhaf, H. Spencer, 2011. "The Political Economy of Environmental Justice," MPRA Paper 101191, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Singleton, Patrick A. & Clifton, Kelly J., 2017. "Considering health in US metropolitan long-range transportation plans: A review of guidance statements and performance measures," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 79-89.
    14. Yushim Kim & Heather Campbell & Adam Eckerd, 2014. "Residential Choice Constraints and Environmental Justice," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 95(1), pages 40-56, March.
    15. Bindu Panikkar & Qing Ren & Fosca Bechthold, 2023. "Transportation Justice in Vermont Communities of High Environmental Risk," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-18, January.
    16. Karner, Alex, 2018. "Assessing public transit service equity using route-level accessibility measures and public data," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 24-32.
    17. Costa, Cayo & Ha, Jaehyun & Lee, Sugie, 2021. "Spatial disparity of income-weighted accessibility in Brazilian Cities: Application of a Google Maps API," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    18. Chakraborti, Lopamudra & Shimshack, Jay P., 2022. "Environmental disparities in urban Mexico: Evidence from toxic water pollution," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    19. Allen, Jeff & Farber, Steven, 2020. "Planning transport for social inclusion: An accessibility-activity participation approach," SocArXiv ap7wh, Center for Open Science.
    20. Yang, Wenyue & Chen, Bi Yu & Cao, Xiaoshu & Li, Tao & Li, Peng, 2017. "The spatial characteristics and influencing factors of modal accessibility gaps: A case study for Guangzhou, China," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 21-32.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:transp:v:52:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s11116-023-10442-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.