Access to Opportunities: Redefining Planning Methods and Measures for Disadvantaged Populations

This project will be made up of two separate studies that together will investigate areas where transportation planning and engineering can better serve disadvantaged and underserved communities. An interdisciplinary team of planning and public health researchers from University of Arizona (UA) will investigate how standard measures and conceptions of walkability hold up across socio-economic contexts. Pilot data from a Center for Disease Control (CDC)-funded project suggest that many standard measures of walkability may miss important elements of the built and social environment that can faciliate or deter walking in disadvantaged communtiies. The project team will collect data using on-street interview methodology developed in Tucson and a mail survey in a sample of cities nationwide. The aim of this study is to produce actionable recommendations about how concepts like walkability should be defined, measured, and applied in disadvantaged neighborhoods. In parallel to this work, University of Texas, Arlington (UTA) engineering, public policy, and social work faculty will work with nonprofits and other service providers to characterize transportation gaps that result from system deficiencies at a regional scale. The project teramwill measure these gaps’ impact on well-being in terms of health (physical and psycho-social), access to opportunities (work, personal, business, etc.), and community connectedness. This program will develop a roadmap for future research that can transform transportation planning practice to better account for disadvantaged communities.

• Record URL:
  http://nitc.trec.pdx.edu/research/project/1087

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $369257
• Contract Numbers:

  NITC 1087

  69A3551747112

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  University of Texas at Arlington

  School of Social Work
  Box 19308
  Arlington, TX  United States  76019-0308

  University of Texas at Arlington

  Box 19308
  Arlington, TX  United States  76019-0308

  University of Arizona

  Tucson, AZ  United States  85721
• Managing Organizations:

  TREC at Portland State University

  1900 SW Fourth Ave, Suite 175
  P.O. Box 751
  Portland, Oregon  United States  97201
• Project Managers:

  Hagedorn, Hau

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Texas at Arlington

  Department of Civil Engineering
  Box 19308
  Arlington, TX  United States  76019

  University of Texas at Arlington

  School of Social Work
  Box 19308
  Arlington, TX  United States  76019-0308

  University of Arizona

  College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture
  PO Box 210075
  Tucson, AZ  United States  85721
• Principal Investigators:

  Adkins, Arlie

  Mattingly, Stephen

• Start Date: 20170901
• Expected Completion Date: 20240301
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Access; Health; Neighborhoods; Quality of life; Socioeconomic factors; Transportation disadvantaged persons; Walkability
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01651389
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: National Institute for Transportation and Communities
• Contract Numbers: NITC 1087, 69A3551747112
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Nov 21 2017 2:54PM