Methods and Measures

In consultation with the environmental justice community, the MPO developed performance measures to use for assessing relative levels of transportation service and for evaluating environmental justice. The initial assessments were incorporated into the 2000–2025 Regional Transportation Plan Update, which was completed in March 2002 and further developed in the Addendum to the Plan, which was completed in September 2002.

In 2003, the MPO completed a systems-level analysis of environmental justice in the region and incorporated the results into the 2004–2025 Regional Transportation Plan. This work involved assessing the relative mobility of low-income and minority communities under present conditions and under future planned conditions in order to determine whether these communities are being served equitably by the regional transportation system. The MPO consulted with the Environmental Justice Committee in developing the Plan. The MPO is now in the process of conducting additional outreach to minority and low-income communities in order to elicit more input on transportation needs and the steps needed to meet them.

While addressing the measurement of environmental justice for the 2004–2025 Plan, the Committee was primarily interested in transit issues. As articulated by its members, many people who live in low-income and minority neighborhoods are transit-dependent; therefore improvements in transit are of paramount concern. The discussions about roadways were more centered on perceived burdens.

The MPO used the following performance measures to address transit services:

• Vehicle load
• Frequency of service
• Schedule adherence
• Transit amenities (including shelter availability)
• Vehicle assignment (age, air conditioning, emissions profile)

Each of these measures was used to compare the levels of service in MPO communities regardless of which transit mode was available in a given community.

In addition to these performance measures, the MPO developed a measure of transit mobility. The MPO, assisted by the Environmental Justice Committee, identified neighborhoods (each consisting of one or more traffic analysis zones) as environmental justice target areas. The origin zones for travel include low-income and minority areas and non-low-income and non-minority areas, while the destination zones were selected to include high-employment areas (with large numbers of service jobs), hospitals, and schools. Using the regional computer model, the MPO examined travel times, travel distances, and travel speeds between the origins and destinations described above.

In measuring the environmental justice impacts of roadways, MPO staff considered the idea of measuring mobility but did not think it would yield useful results, given the near-universal access to the roadway network. The Environmental Justice Committee, moreover, was primarily interested in highway measures that would indicate the effect of a roadway on a neighborhood. The MPO, with input from the Committee, developed the following roadway measures:

• Safety of the roadway network for all users (vehicle, bicycle, pedestrian)
• Condition of the infrastructure, including bridges
• Impacts of the network on "host" neighborhoods
• Assessment of benefits provided

Consistent with the views of the Committee, these measures are primarily geared toward a project-specific or facility-specific review, as opposed to a systemwide analysis. To review a memorandum summarizing MPO activities and consultations with the Environmental Justice Committee, click here.