Project description

What names the state gives to its roadways, bridges, tunnels, intersections, and other facilities says much about the values and aims policymakers have for the transportation system. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has identified over 1,000 facilities named for individual groups, or geographic locations. This project will synthesize how major institutions choose to name and rename their facilities, characterize the groups of people for whom Caltrans has named its facilities, and offer suggestions for where and how to approach facility renaming. First, the researchers will conduct a review of (re)naming policies and principles, in order to frame the conversation around facility naming and to provide a framework for the analysis to follow. Thereafter, the team will categorize and characterize the eponyms of Caltrans facilities, classifying them as public figures or not and grouping them by gender and occupation/reasoning for naming. Finally, the team will conduct deeper research into a select sample of those eponyms and existing renaming processes identified by Caltrans staff, evaluating their records against the principles identified earlier in the project and providing a basis for potential future renaming discussions. The project has the potential to offer a path for Caltrans not just to reevaluate the names of specific facilities—changing them from ones that potentially alienate or demean the diverse users of the state’s transportation network to ones that uplift representative exemplars—but also to change the principles and systems by which it names all facilities.