REENTRY & DIVERSION
The CPN’s “Its All Connected” campaign for 2021 focusses on strengthening access to the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH). Economic stability and access to services are transportation dependent components of that mission. For cost burdened households (150th percentile of the US DHHS poverty guidelines) that are also transportation deficient, Wake County is a difficult place live and get to work. Affordable housing is scarce and finding housing that also has connectivity to public transportation is indeed a precious and rare commodity.
With poverty comes the need for public transit and reliable transportation to work. There is no remedy for poverty except education, skill development, and employment. Upward economic mobility is dependent upon access to transportation for this reason. While it is true that the feasibility of a route and ridership participation must be present to support transit investment, it is also true that the transportation industry prioritizes roadway infrastructure over transit development and programming. Budget allocation for the Federal Highways Administration versus the Federal Transit Authority is 3.75 times greater. At the state level, NCDOT allocates only 6.2 percent of its annual budget to other modes of transportation of which public transit is only 19% of that total.
The Connection
Transportation planning and design focusses on traffic management, capacity building, and infrastructure system expansion with good reason. Roadway design accommodates multi-modal access and spends additional millions per project on facilities to include complete street concepts with bike lanes and sidewalks that answer the needs of pedestrians and individuals who use other modes of transportation. Likewise, transit investment incentivizes Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) as improving access to work using smart growth practices and stewardship of land-use. For low-income communities, these are actually controversial concepts. On the surface, these facilities appear to provide equity by providing safe access to other effective modes of transportation.
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However, an article published by the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, At the Intersection of Active Transportation and Equity, the relationship between such transportation improvements and community concerns around gentrification and displacement are explained. As development investments flow toward a community and transportation improvements follow, low-income households, and consequently affordable housing, are pushed outside of fixed route boundaries rendering transportation deficient households stranded with fewer employment opportunities, food deserts, barriers to healthcare, and measurable deficits to quality of life.
FHWA estimates that installing a bike lane costs somewhere in the range of $5000 to $50,000 per mile depending on the condition of the pavement, extent of removing and repainting of lane lines, and other factors. Encouraging multi-modal transportation alternatives is vital to growth and capacity. It does create safer access to travel ways for those who walk and bike. However, in a metropolitan area like Raleigh and Wake County where sprawl is prevalent and communities are segregated by race and income, access to work via sidewalks and bike lanes really doesn’t provide an adequate solution for the Wake County’s 150,000 cost burdened residents many of which are transportation deficient. These facilities and improvements predominantly serve residents in communities adjacent to amenities and elevated real estate values.
How much better would our communities be served, if the “priority” was getting people to work, to healthcare, to food access, and families out of poverty instead of adding bike lanes that are used by relatively few users in comparison to the cost of the investment? How much more would the return on infrastructure investment be if we could add to the formula the reduction in cost for public assistance when families access better jobs and self-sufficiency. If we apply as intended the principals of equitable distribution and benefit of transportation funding to serve proportionately low-income and minority communities, then transportation programming would have to reflect the needs of marginalized communities and focus on breaking down transportation barriers that have long-term effects on health and well-being.
Currently, there is no dedicated federal or state funding allocation that addresses access to employment, specifically. This ties the hands of planners trying to address community needs as they are not equipped with funding or the proper tools for the job. Transportation is an expensive resource to provide and local governments are also cost burdened especially in the wake of the pandemic. So, until federal and state transportation legislation changes current funding priorities, innovation and solutions will have to come from the local level.
We are in it together as a community and as transportation professionals to figure it out. It is imperative that we find ways to amplify the voices and the needs of our vulnerable communities in the transportation planning and design processes. Transportation processes are heavily regulated and laden with detailed procedures mandated by legislation and constrained by funding eligibility. An infrastructure project can literally take decades in development and transit planning cannot address immediate needs. It is a recipe that quickly loses the trust of marginalized communities who are historically conditioned to expect loss when public meeting notices arrive in a neighborhood.
It is this history of mistrust and conditioning that makes public engagement difficult for planners seeking new ways to address the comprehensive needs of ALL our Wake and Triangle Region communities. The CPN is committed to helping transit providers connect with the community and find new ways to increase participation in the planning process.