Project number: PSR-20-19

Funding source: US DOT
Contract number: 69A3551747109
Funding amount: $100,000
Performance period: 08/16/20 to 08/15/21

This project will merge and triangulate several data sources on vehicular travel and pollution to investigate the environmental equity of transportation infrastructure utilization - beyond its original racialized planning and placement. In particular it will develop a new indicator linking production of and exposure to vehicular pollution based on various sources of pollution/ emissions data and vehicle miles traveled. While the transportation-environmental justice literature typically emphasizes community characteristics in terms of exposure disparities that rely on proximity to road infrastructure, this project will link vehicular pollution exposure with vehicular pollution production. This will give us a new understanding of the sociodemographics-mediated relationship between production and exposure. Through a combination of indicator analysis, mapping, and regression analysis, we will investigate the neighborhoods exposed to the most/least pollution per mile traveled as well as the ceteris paribus relationship between race and exposure per mile traveled. This analysis will in turn suggest constructive paths forward for planners and policymakers, including identifying communities of interest and how different possible interventions might operate.