January 2005

The first meeting of the year was held on January 20, 2005 at the Silver Dragon Restaurant in Downtown Oakland. The meeting’s feature presentation was “Environmental Justice: Striking a Balance to Serve the Transportation Needs of the Diverse Public.” The speakers were: David Garland, adjunct professor at the School of Public Health and the director of the Traffic Safety Center at UC Berkeley; Therese M knudsen and Rachel Gossen with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC); and Norman G. Dong, a senior planner at Caltrans Headquarters in Sacramento.

Professor Garland’s presentation provided an overview of recent research on traffic accident data in communities of color. The presentation concentrated on variations in traffic accident data in communities of color, specifically predominantly Hispanic communities. The presentation also explored socio-economic factors that could cause the variations in accidents and potential solutions.

Ms. Knudsen and Ms. Gossen presented MTC’s recent efforts on environmental justice as part of the organization’s Transportation 2030 Plan. The main focus of this environmental justice effort has been to measure the benefits and burdens of the long-range transportation investments on minority and low income populations. Factors such as accessibility and travel times to jobs, schools, and other essential services were measured for various communities to ensure that all communities in the Bay Area would benefit from the transportation investments in the next 30 years. The study found that communities of concern would mostly benefit from transit projects.

Mr. Dong provided an overview of Caltrans’ environmental justice program. Recent federal and state laws require local and state agencies to take environmental justice concerns into account. Thus, Caltrans has implemented programs to avoid or mitigate disproportionate, negative impacts on communities of concern, while improving mobility, access, equity and economic vitality by being more sensitive to the needs, issues and concerns of the affected communities. Mr. Dong provided specific examples of how Caltrans has modified its procedures to address environmental justice concerns.