Promoting Transportation Equity (TE) through Curriculum Interventions (Project K6)

The transportation industry, as it exists today, does not represent the communities it serves. Promoting diversity and inclusion, while uplifting equity within the transportation workforce, is a necessity to create an inclusive environment that meets communities’ needs (Ng, 2020). We need to start encouraging an equity-minded reform in engineering schools, where the main focus continues to be the technical aspects of transportation. The missing piece in these curriculums is understanding the human context of transportation and how transportation projects and policies change the direction of urban, suburban, and rural lives. To address these needs, this project will develop an equity-focused course for transportation and civil engineering fields for universities and colleges in the Southeast. An equity-focused curriculum aims to: (1) bring subtle forms of inequities within transportation systems to light; and (2) provide opportunities for deep analysis around historically underrepresented groups and the deceleration of these groups joining the workforce. This project will build on existing training, toolkits, and measures centering on transportation equity (UFTI, 2021). Through reviewing existing courses related to transportation equity training and STEM inclusion programs (ITE, 2018), this project will develop the layout and materials for equity training to be used by graduate schools to educate future engineers and planners about the manifestation of equity in their daily practices and ways to promote diversity and enhance inclusion within the transportation field. The educational material can be used in other geographic locations. The research team will complete a comprehensive review of existing courses and training on transportation equity in a sample of 40 graduate programs across the country (in civil engineering and urban and regional planning). Such a course will provide engineering students with insightful perspectives on the human context they are working with and the impacts of transportation projects and policies on communities’ everyday lives. Ultimately, this creates a more comprehensive and practical approach to transportation and makes these students invaluable to the future workforce.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $130650
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3551747104

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education Center (STRIDE)

  University of Florida
  365 Weil Hall
  Gainesville, FL  United States  32611
• Project Managers:

  Tucker-Thomas, Dawn

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Florida Transportation Institute

  P.O. Box 116580
  Gainesville, FL  United States  32611

  The Citadel

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  171 Moultrie Street
  Charleston, SC  United States  29409

  University of Alabama at Birmingham University Transportation Center

  University of Alabama at Birmingham
  Birmingham, AL  United States  35294
• Principal Investigators:

  Mohebbi, Mehri

  Michalaka, Dimitra

  Sisiopiku, Virginia

• Start Date: 20220315
• Expected Completion Date: 20230415
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Civil engineering; College students; Curricula; Equity; Planning and design; Transportation engineering
• Subject Areas: Education and Training; Society; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01854184
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education Center (STRIDE)
• Contract Numbers: 69A3551747104
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Aug 10 2022 2:40PM