Lessons Learned

Baltimore Region Environmental and Transportation Project

Prepared for:

The Environmental Protection Agency

2009

All Rights Reserved

Filling The Gap. Define it! Prioritize it! Analyze it! Evaluate it! Document it!
 Lessons Learned The Baltimore Region Environmental Justice in Transportation Project

Table of Contents
Table.....................................................................................................................................................................2
Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................................................3
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................3
The Project.......................................................................................................................................................4
Lessons Learned.............................................................................................................................................4
Methodology.......................................................................................................................................................6
Source of Information........................................................................................................................................7
Acronyms Used..................................................................................................................................................8
Output .................................................................................................................................................................9
Literature Review...........................................................................................................................................9
Community Guide .......................................................................................................................................10
Environmental Justice Toolkit....................................................................................................................10
Environmental Justice Toolkit Technical Documentation......................................................................10
Outcome ............................................................................................................................................................13
Results................................................................................................................................................................14
Impact on Management and Policy...............................................................................................................14
Limitations and Next Steps.............................................................................................................................15
Bibliography .....................................................................................................................................................16

Figure

Figure 1 Lessons Learned Methodology .............................................................................................................6

Figure 2 : Public Participation and Analysis Framework...........................................................................11

Figure 3: Measuring Equity ............................................................................................................................13

Figure 4: Potential Triage Committee Members.........................................................................................15

Table
Table 1: EJ Impact Analysis Tools Used In Baltimore...................................................................................5

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 Lessons Learned The Baltimore Region Environmental Justice in Transportation Project

Acknowledgments

Support the Baltimore Region Environmental Justice and Transportation Project, through a
Cooperative Agreement with Morgan State University. The research effort focused on the
concerns of local residents, transit dependant and community leaders in four Baltimore City
communities: Kirk Ave., Cherry Hill, Highway–to-Nowhere, and Lexington Market.

The project team acknowledges Victor McMahan, Environmental Protection Agency, Gloria
Shepard Federal Highway Administration, Tony Brown, Maryland Transit Administration
and Harvey Bloom, Baltimore Metropolitan Commission. As well we are grateful to the
community groups for their fine work, the support they gave to this research, as well as their
willingness to continue to share their experience with us and with other communities. We
wish them the best as they strive to participate in planning decisions to ensure accessible,
affordable and reliable transportation for people with disabilities, low incomes and others in
their communities.

Introduction
The development of this toolkit is based on several notions. They are: 1) low income and minority

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 Lessons Learned The Baltimore Region Environmental Justice in Transportation Project

communities are still in need of effective channels for working within the “system”, 2) finding
solutions to issues that are central and urgent to the tenants of environmental justice (EJ) promotes a
better a better understanding of the decision making process facilitates public participation and
leads to change, 3) the resolution of EJ issues will involve an intertwined and iterative analysis
process that focuses on collaboration rather than agitation and 4) that the complexity of equity
impact analysis overlaps with and is dependent on a complexity of the intertwined issue of ecology,
housing, public health and governance. Because of the community focus, participation, and
attention to replication, the Baltimore project has developed a strong platform and a viable
framework that has the potential to contribute to improving the transportation decision making
process in support of air quality, housing and transportation goals not only in the Baltimore Region
but in other similar regions across the country. The project team gratefully acknowledge the three
community groups for their committed effort, untiring support they gave to this research, as well as
their willingness to share their experience with us and with other communities.

The Project
The Baltimore Region Environmental Justice in Transportation project (BREJTP) is a community
driven bottom up collaborative research effort funded by the Federal Highway Administration
(FHA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop a systematic process for that
integrates environmental justice into the existing transportation decision making process.

Since 2003 the Baltimore Region Environmental Justice and Transportation Project (BREJT Project)
has been listening to low-income minority communities describe the impact that transportation has
on their environment and in their lives. Our primary mission has been to encourage government
and communities to better work together to achieve environmentally sound solutions when
addressing community identified environmental problems. The goal of this toolkit is to produce a
vehicle for addressing community based concerns through an informed public involvement process
that is credibly responsive to public input particularly from low income and minority taxpayers. The
BREJT Project’s objective is to use a variety of planning tools to inform and empower communities
about environmental concerns utilizing community stakeholders to identify local concerns and
potential remedies.

Lessons Learned
The tools used in the four BREJT case studies, Kirk Avenue, Cherry Hill, Lexington Market and
Highway to Nowhere combine lessons learned and several levels of analysis techniques to
demonstrate how issues associated with environmental justice in transportation (EJT) issues can be
systematically evaluated using a store of traditional transportation planning impact measures and
analytical tools. As such, in the Kirk Avenue case study the MTA bus depot concerns focus on the
location and operation of a bus depot in an older, inner-city working-class neighborhood along Kirk
Avenue.

The Cherry Hill case study evaluates a history of public transit service changes, service reductions
and poor service delivery in a predominately African American, and low-income community with a
large number of residents who living in public housing.

While the Lexington Market case study analyzes the reaction to changes in transit service in an
historic shopping destination frequented by lower-income residents from surrounding communities

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 Lessons Learned The Baltimore Region Environmental Justice in Transportation Project

in central Baltimore.

The Highway to Nowhere case study concerns communities in the U.S. Route 40 Corridor through
West Baltimore regarding plans for a proposed Red Line and efforts to create transit-oriented
development around an existing commuter rail station (West Baltimore MARC), fearing community
disruption, destruction and dislocation as occurred in the partially abandoned I-170 which divided
West Baltimore in the 1960s.

Important lessons were learned from using the above tools to evaluate the concerns of local
residents, low income African Americans, transit dependent populations and community leaders in
the BREJT project.

Table 1 illustrates the mix of analytical tools used to frame and evaluate the EJ impact analysis of
issues used in the BREJT Project and to guide the development of this toolkit.

Table 1: EJ Impact Analysis Tools Used In Baltimore

Kirk Avenue Measures of Impact - Proximity of depot to homes, number of bus using
the facility that provide service to urban communities, public health risk
factors associated with noise and pollution and impact on median sales
price of homes. Analytical Procedures - buffer analysis, noise, transit
operations, inventory public health risk factor and comparisons of
property values surrounding other bus facilities.

Cherry Hill Measure of Impact - accessibility to employment center, mobility of

transit dependant population particularly seniors with disabilities.
Analytical Procedures - Transit accessibility and population
demographic analysis.

Lexington Market Measures of Impact - Analytical Procedures -Upon review of the

situation, initial concerns about serious congestion and health effects
due to prolonged exposure to vehicle activity - as framed in the
community discussions–appeared less severe than initially portrayed.

Highway To Nowhere Measures of Impact – evaluate the impact of commuter traffic and local
congestion on the local areas. Analytical Procedures - ADT, select link,
population demographic, mobile source emissions, transit service and
accessibility analysis.

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 Lessons Learned The Baltimore Region Environmental Justice in Transportation Project

Figure 1 Lessons Learned

•In the case study communities we found a common desire for a better living environment, a more
responsive government, and the demise of blight and decay. We also discover that planning tools
are not fully employed to evaluate EJ issues which suggest the need for the propagation of EJ
enforceable service and planning standards.

•The clear message that when individuals, neighborhoods and communities are motivated, well
organized, and better educated on transportation issues and improvement options a sense of
community ownership is created that can better influence project selection outcomes that reinforce
regional growth with healthier neighborhoods and stable communities

•That Environmental Justice Analysis informs the transportation planning process through the
introduction of a community based public participation framework that encourages low income
and minority communities to use performance measures and analytical tools

•That small area analysis when used by community organizers and planning professionals for a
common purpose of improve accessibility and mobility can result in a more equitable way of
assessing environmental justice and transportation issues at the local level has region wide benefits.

•That the low-income neighborhoods communities and the transportation maintenance facilities
they attract may need better protections to ensure equitable treatment

•Busses traveling through communities and passing near schools increase noise and exhaust
pollution. Further decreases property value leading to vacant homes that disenfranchises.

•Thirty years after the Highway to Now-where was constructed there is still a community memory
of the destruction and a palpable bitterness about what was done

•The public rightly felt that it had been marginalized by the decision-making process, and that
commercial interests (such as a parking lot adjacent to the Market) were given preference over
there well being. Upon review of the situation, initial concerns about serious congestion and health
effects due to prolonged exposure to vehicle activity-as framed in the community discussions-
appeared less severe than initially portrayed

•Transportation investment such as light rail systems can be a blessing or a curse. Unequal access
to light rail does has limited utility for business and community use in general and it is particularly
difficult for seniors and disabled populations.

•Low Income Residents have a higher incidence of congested related illness. Seniors have
difficulty riding certain buses due to over- crowding.

Methodology
The Baltimore Region Environmental Justice in Transportation (BREJT) project used a case study approach

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to gather data to help better understand in real time the risk and burdens in the Environmental Justice and
Transportation Decision Making Process. The overall methodology and approach to each case study
involved a series of steps which revolved around the cooperation and participation of community
stakeholders and various agencies. These steps included: a.) Problem definition (e.g. how
widespread), b) Framing impacts (e.g., critical variables and measures), c) Selection and application
of analytical techniques (e.g., spatial level of analysis), and d) Resolution and feedback (e.g.,
evaluation of the tools that might be employed, or have been employed). To accomplish the analysis
of community driven issues, BREJT was structured into three sequential phases:

 Phase I – Community Outreach: Designed to determine what the key issues and concerns
are to candidate subgroups, as well as identify methods for reaching the correct segments.

 Phase II – Develop Environmental Justice in Transportation Tool Kit: to develop an

environmental justice in transportation planning guide that supports interactive exchanges
between the MPO, community residents, and transportation agencies.

 Phase III – Dissemination of Findings and Possible New Tools: Encouraging the
propagation and dissemination of the improved procedures through academic curriculum,
technology transfer, and peer exchange. There is also the possibility that tools are not
identified in Phase II that will need to be developed in a future phase.
Building upon the findings in Phase I, Phase II of the project developed and organized the EJ &
Transportation Toolkit. In Phase III the most relevant accessibility and air quality related issues in
highly impacted and representative environmental justice communities in the Baltimore region
were disseminated on http://www.brejtp.org

Source of Information
 Existing data
 Follow up interviews or surveys.
 Focus groups designed to foster interaction among key stakeholders, and to allow these
interchanges to raise knowledge and perceptions about less obvious contributing concerns or about
potential solutions.
 Sketch planning methods, i.e., ad hoc techniques that provide a reasonable approximation of the
effect or result with the data and tools at hand, such as with a spreadsheet that has default values
for certain parameters and instructs the user on what data to supply.
 Regional travel forecasting model to estimate either how widespread the particular effect is across
the regional network, or if there are changes in travel mode, route, destination or other effects that
result in a geographic redistribution of benefits.
 Traffic simulation tools, particularly to evaluate the effects on traffic flow and congestion of
actions or events that influence travel levels in corridors or on local street networks.
 Geographic information system (GIS) tools to spatially locate and deal with the overlay of
transportation issues or improvements on particular population market segments.

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 Lessons Learned The Baltimore Region Environmental Justice in Transportation Project

Acronyms Used
BMC Baltimore Metropolitan Council
BREJT Baltimore Region Environmental Justice in Transportation
EPA Environmental Protection Agency
EJT Environmental Justice in Transportation
EJTK Environmental Justice in Transportation Toolkit
GIS Geographic Information System
MTA Maryland Transit Administration

Activities
In 2004, a series of 8 listening sessions and a community dialogue were held in communities
throughout the Baltimore region. These events offered the public a chance to share their concerns
about transportation in the region.

In 2006, over 50 people gathered to kick off Phase II of the project. At this event, participants chose
the top three areas of concern in the Baltimore region - access to quality transit service, air quality
and congestion, and public involvement in the planning process - and potential communities where
these concerns exist.

The next step of the process was to fully explore these concerns by developing several case studies.
The following locations were selected:

 Kirk Avenue
 Cherry Hill
 West Baltimore (Highway to Nowhere)
 Lexington Market

In March 2007, after much work by community groups and research by the team, the case studies
were presented to attendees of a community workshop.

The BREJT Project held a final Community Workshop on Saturday, October 25, 2008. The event,
hosted by the BREJT team is an important step in sustaining this regional initiative. The highlight of
the workshop was the release of a Community Guide (PDF: 9,927 KB) intended to provide
information to communities on what EJ is and how to bring issues to the attention of local officials
and Metropolitan Planning Organizations, such as the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board.

Also of note was the presence and participation of so many community members that have
contributed to the understanding and advancement of EJ in the Baltimore region. The toolkit will be
available electronically to provide easy access to planners as well as citizens.

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Output
The primary project outputs are the discussed in this section. The six phases shown below are used
in the public participation framework and drill down analysis process to tease out what happened,
who was involved and what the community wants. Using the drill down process shown below the
project focused on the transportation impacts of public health, accessibility and travel demand on
low income and minority communities with the intent to identify policies that move community
based EJ concern toward viable solutions.

1.) Each phase used in this approach is meant to be inclusive of both the EJ communities and the
transportation agency of responsibility.

Phase 1 - Community-Driven Intergovernmental Engagement and Cooperation

Phase 2 - Community Assessment and Citizen Input (Identify the Local Problems)

Phase 3 - Information Gathering and Analysis (Due Diligence)

Phase 4 - Developing a Community Profile (Analytical)

Phase 5 - Drill Down to Evaluate the EJT Issues (Evaluation)

Phase 6 - Being Heard (Communicating)

2.) In applying the above phases we developed a local EJ network of concerned low income and
minority residents and their advocates and a public participation framework model. The public
participation model (Figure 1) is one of three core environmental justice-planning components. The
other two components are performance measures and analytical tools. These components combine
to provide environmental justice evaluation methods and procedures that maybe be used to confirm
or negate issues identified in low-income communities. In particular the public participation
framework is designed as the starting point for vetting issues and developing analysis strategies for
interrogating environmental justice and transportation issues through a triage-type activity that has
multiple screening levels and explicit feedback loops.

3.) Develop a compendium of the technical memoranda prepared into EJ toolkit that specifically best
evaluate issues first at the unit and zonal level. Develop a better understanding of the breath of EJ
Issues and how to best Frame the Analysis, Measure impacts and challenges of major issues develop
a better understanding of analytic tools and considerations evaluating and by extension selecting
analytical tools and analysis procedures for evaluating EJ issues. Advance analytical procedures by
applying a store of performance measures and analytical procedures that are available for
Environmental Justice and Transportation decision making.

4.) As a result of the BREJT project’s listening sessions and community dialogue where over 120
individuals participated in an all-day workshop to share perceptions with elected officials, national
experts, and academic specialists. We fined tuned a process for measuring equity Figure 1).

Literature Review
The document discusses the need for guidance is both aided and made uncertain by the growing

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number of case studies and research reports on EJ. In the course of developing our proposal to
construct an EJT Toolkit under Phase II of the Baltimore Region Environmental Justice and
Transportation (BREJT) project, we have conducted a preliminary review of the literature to
establish whether our premise is valid. This paper summarizes our review of what we believe to be
the key studies and reports that have been produced to date on environmental justice in
transportation. In particular, we have reviewed EJ case studies that have been published by FHWA
or FTA, or that have been sponsored by these agencies and their documentation made available on
the respective websites. We have also reviewed a more recent set of overview studies and
handbooks that begin to fill the gap on the “how to” part of EJ. Most of this work is excellent and
serves a valued role in the library on this evolving subject, and most should be incorporated in any
future guidance activity. To make clear our purpose, this review is to ascertain whether the type of
comprehensive approach we are suggesting already exists in substantial whole or part.

Community Guide
This report demonstrates the sense of urgency for community-action by introducing to the reader
common symptoms of environment injustice, a sketch of the legal definition of Environmental
Justice, key components of EJT analysis approaches in the context a public participation framework
for addressing environmental justice and transportation issues.

Environmental Justice Toolkit

This EJ toolkit is a guide to assist metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), communities, and
other stakeholders avoid, minimize, or mitigate the social, economic, or environmental
consequences of transportation projects and policies. It is designed to help determine the extent of
environmental justice and transportation (EJT) issues in low-income and minority communities (EJ
communities). This toolkit includes six chapters that provide a framework to better understand
environmental justice (EJ) issues related to transportation projects (existing and new) and methods
to define, analyze, evaluate and document such findings. Throughout the toolkit, examples of four
Baltimore communities are used to demonstrate how tools can work to identify and reduce EJT
concerns.

To successfully use this toolkit, the reader is provided a framework for better: understanding the
meaning of Environmental Justice, interpreting performance measures, using analysis tools and
documenting findings. The reader is encouraged to practice the processes and procedures provided
and to descriptively document in a journal those community issues, which are believed to have
transportation and environmental justice impacts; then after defining the problem, provide specific
examples and surmise potential impacts. Understanding the history of the associated impacts, the
user is encouraged to apply the recommended BREJT Project framework for understanding,
scoping, framing and confirming community based issues to arrive at agreed upon solutions using
a basket of traditional analysis approaches and performance measures.

Environmental Justice Toolkit Technical Documentation

This report presents an evaluation of each case study and in doing so identifies, analyzes and
evaluates a mix of community identified Environmental Justice (EJ) issues at various levels of
geographical detail, to determine their relevance and to ultimately develop evaluative criteria that
can be used in the transportation planning process. As a part o the final report a summary of the
analysis activities undertaken in relation to each case study will be provided. For each study there is
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presented a profile, beginning with a brief Description of the setting and the concerns, followed by
an inventory of the Investigations undertaken in support of the concerns, and then a presentation of
the Findings resulting from the analysis and review of the key questions. A final section in each
profile will summarize the Conclusions and recommendations resulting from the analysis.

The guide is developed using the lens of low-income and minority groups to serve as a planning
guide resource for community activist, transportation professionals, civil servants, and public
servants who have responsibility for spending and advocating for an equitable distribution of
federal funding. The strength of this guide lies in its intent to foster a better understanding of
Environmental Justice and Transportation particularly in low-income and minority communities by
providing a better understanding of core transportation planning process mechanisms.

Figure 2 : Public Participation and Analysis Framework

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 Lessons Learned The Baltimore Region Environmental Justice in Transportation Project

The diagram in Figure 1 shows the framework for an EJ analysis process.

Step 1, as tends to be the case, issues and concerns related to social and environmental justice
originate within the community.

Step 2, when the community perceives that they are experiencing discrimination in the delivery of a
public good or service they will likely be in need of additional information and/or analysis. An
individual or community group may first take their concerns to the service provider, such as a
transit agency, local planning department, or metropolitan planning organization.

Step 3, when the evidence regarding discriminatory practices is not entirely clear, further evaluation
can be used to assess the concerns of the community.

Step 4, this secondary problem screening and analysis step uses a formal process and follows the
identification of issues at the community level. The next step in the process will be to communicate
concerns to organizational heads with influence.

Step 5, in all cases this will involve studying potential solutions or alternatives that have been
identified by an individual, neighborhood, advocacy group or a planning professional. In some
cases this may involve having solutions or alternatives already in hand. In other cases these
solutions may not be known yet but rather need further exploration. The communications step is
important because it dictates whether the ensuing process will be contentious or not. This point the
process is referred to as the Triage Process. Decisions will be made about how the concern or issue
will be treated, especially in relation to its urgency and extent.

Step 6, d If it is determined that the concern should be addressed relatively soon, actions may
include toolkit analysis, mediation, or legal action as appropriate.

Step 7, otherwise, the standard MPO planning review process can be used.

Step 8 or a particular action or remedy could be arrived at by consensus.

Step 9, evaluation of each of these three paths should then occur to determine whether the outcomes
of the process are deemed acceptable.

In summary if the acceptability of an outcome remains in question, the EJ analysis framework

should lead back to the Triage Process (step 5) where it can be re-evaluated along with any new
information generated during steps 6. 7., or 8. Otherwise the process can continue on to the
Planning Board or other decision-making body (step 10).

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Figure 3: Measuring Equity

Community
Issues Community Driven Public Participation

Goal Objectives Performance Measures

Job Access Economic Vitality Encourage Work opportunities within 15, 30 and 45
and Employment minutes by car and transit door-to-door. Percent
Competitiveness Opportunities; Urban of transit-dependent riders who can access jobs
Communities with 45 minutes by fixed route of transit
Maintenance Safety and Security Stop the Use of Old Percent and characteristic of out-of-service buses
(Motorized and Equipment in Low coming into an area.
Non) Income Pedestrian/bicycle injuries & fatalities
Neighborhoods Vehicle Crashes, Age of Fleet
Increased Increase Access to Jobs Proximity to transit
Accessibility Accessibility and Level of Service
Mobility Options Accessibility to health care facilities
Accessibility to educational facilities
Reduce Air and Protect Clean Environment Air pollution concentrations; Incidence rates of
Noise Pollution Environment, Respiratory disorders, Number of Households
Conserve Energy exposed to noise. Asthma rates in communities
and Improve adjacent to large transportation facilities,
Quality of Life
Improved Enhance Access to shopping Number of fatalities
Transit Route Connectivity and and services Locations improved per million passenger miles
Structure Integration Across
Modes for People
and Freight
Need Manage and Advocate for project Condition of roads and streets
Assessment Preserve Existing funding to improve Condition of side walks
Transportation local conditions. Ratio of uncongested travel time between
System origins and destinations
Funding Equity Local Fairness in Transit Per Capita Transportation expenditures
Regional Funding Per Capita Operating Expenses
Statewide Number of fatalities
Identity of user who benefit
Locations improved per million passenger miles

Outcome
1. issues are better identified and addressed using the enhanced community involvement and
technical analysis procedures and techniques in the EJT Toolkit, which can be integrated into any
regional (or state) transportation planning process.

2.) Improved ability to measure and track environmental, health and community well-being
impacts and progress in the Baltimore region.

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3.) Improved ability to reduce and identify critical mobile source related air pollutants and reduce
the impacts from transportation facilities as well as improve transportation services to
communities of concern in the Baltimore region.

Results
1.) Phase I output, which included community listening sessions and a community workshop,
verified the need for community input into transportation decisions affecting the communities of
concern. The subsequent review of the literature and best practices verified the need for a practical
toolkit to effectively address community EJ concerns and transportation and air quality planning
requirements.

2.) The project identified service delivery distributional gaps and supported the need for the Phase
II EJT toolkit - systematic guidance and techniques to undertake a comprehensive EJ and
transportation program.

3.) The U.S. Department of Transportation has joined with EPA to support and expand Phase II of
the Baltimore project. More specifically, DOT’s Transportation Equity Research Program (TERP)
funding and technical assistance will be used to support the EJ case studies, toolkit development
and replication.

4.) As well, community groups and not-for-profit organizations have embraced the development of
the EJ toolkit to further advance the work pioneered by the:

 Atlanta Transportation Benefits and Burdens Study

 NCHRP Project 8-36(11): Technical Methods to Support Analyses of Environmental Justice
Issues
 NCHRP Report 532: Effective Methods for Environmental Justice Assessment

5.) Low income community groups in each case study are proactively engaging federal, state,
regional and local planning processes.

6.) State, regional and local planning agencies as a pretext for long and short range plans and
projects to improve system efficiencies put in place transportation, environmental and land use
concepts with more focus on environmental justice and underserved populations.

7.) Low income and minority communities in Baltimore are exploring the use of Title VI complaints
to force compliance of Environmental Justice Executive orders.

Impact on Management and Policy

During the course of this project in the Baltimore region there have been notable increases in the
efforts of state, regional and local agencies to comply with the requirements of Title VI. In doing so
they are reacting to the importance of actively reaching out to low-income and minority
communities to ask for their input and encourage their participation in the planning process. As an
active participant in the development of the toolkit, the Baltimore Metropolitan Planning ha been
conducting the activities listed below and they are working to sustain this work effort by implement
the BREJT recommended Triage committee, Figure 3.

 Updating community outreach mailing lists

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 Advising transportation planners on outreach activities

 Holding regularly scheduled listening sessions and public hearings
 Reviewing the annual transportation planning work plan
 Reviewing the annual Transportation Improvement Program update

Evaluation of Environmental Justice Issues

Public
Health
Institution
Local State
Government DOT

Urban Triage
Academic Committee MPO
Institution

Business
Group Non - Profit

Community
Group

Figure 4: Potential Triage Committee Members

At the state, regional level and local level, this increased effort suggest that administrative rules are
required to ensure that agencies look beyond merely identifying the location of low income and
minority communities by actively looking for environmental justice problems by comparing the
benefits (such as travel time saved or accessibility to jobs) from a regional transportation plan to the
costs (amount of taxes paid by each income group) and by looking at how the burdens (such as
deteriorated air quality and excessive noise) are distributed across income, ethnic, and age groups.

Limitations and Next Steps

Although the study effectively introduced case studies that were informative of an overall
transportation and environmental injustice relationships the link to policy are missed. This research
can be strengthened if general policy conclusions and key findings can be made that could be
relevant to broader policy initiative associated with issues identified in each of the study area and
elsewhere in the region. The economic impact aspect of transportation systems (land and home
values, business impacts, etc) are discussed but are not effectively integrated in the toolkit. No
effective measure or indicator is broadly discussed in this study. Some of these economic indicators
of the impact of transportation decisions on, say property values, could be an indicator of economic
stress and inequity, but not well specified. As well we will continue to encourage MPO, transit
agencies and local governments to adopt public participation frameworks and apply analytical
procedures differently for evaluating EJ issue by targeting the replication by conduct small area
analysis to continue to raise the level of EJ awareness in low income and minority communities in
Pittsburg, Minneapolis, Detroit, Baltimore, Albany and Oakland.

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20) South Coast Air Quality Management District, Multiple Air Toxics Exposure Study-II (March 2000).
California Environmental Protection Agency, Air Resources Board, April 2002
Fresno Asthmatic Children’s Environment Study (FACES)
21) Baltimore Region Environmental Justice in Transportation Project, Community Dialogue, November
2004

Baltimore Region Environmental Justice and Transportation Project

Define it! Prioritize it! Analyze it! Evaluate it! Document it!