Dive Brief:
- Transportation electrification may not be the best choice for achieving transportation equity in disadvantaged communities, according to a Feb. 25 policy paper by the Transportation Energy Institute.
- Access to electric vehicle charging equipment and the high cost of EVs limits low-income households’ ability to take advantage of these lower-emission vehicles, the paper says, and many depend on conventionally fueled vehicles.
- The paper raises questions and considerations that could help policymakers develop a more “holistic approach” to achieving transportation equity in disadvantaged communities.
Dive Insight:
About 100 million people in the U.S. live in disadvantaged communities, according to the TEI paper, citing the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool. The tool was created by the Biden administration and recently taken offline by an executive order from President Donald Trump, but it remains available in an archive created by Atlas Public Policy.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 highlighted inequities in transportation. While many office workers continued at their jobs from the safety of their homes, essential workers — often from low-income communities — were required to show up at their workplaces.
Transportation costs hit households in these communities the hardest: They were spending 30% of their after-tax income on transportation in 2022, compared with 12% for the highest income segment, according to data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Rural households spent more of their after-tax income on transportation than those in urban areas in 2023, according to BTS.
While Biden-era policies and programs provided funding for public transit and public charging stations, disadvantaged communities may not have had the resources to apply for these grants or to acquire and maintain charging stations, the TEI paper says. The report also notes that lower-income communities often face multiple transportation-related environmental issues, such as proximity to highways and industrial pollution.
These communities often consist of diverse populations, the paper states. Direct, meaningful engagement with such communities enables residents to have a say in the transportation policies and projects that could address their specific needs, it says.
The paper provides questions to help communities and policymakers understand and evaluate transportation equity initiatives. “This holistic approach is essential for achieving truly equitable outcomes in [disadvantaged communities], ultimately bridging the gaps in access, opportunity, and environmental justice across diverse populations,” the report states.
However, whereas the Biden administration’s “Justice40” initiative explicitly directed 40% of certain federal spending to go to disadvantaged communities, the Trump administration is taking a different approach. Newly appointed Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has directed the DOT to, in part, prioritize communities with higher birth and marriage rates than the national average.
