Opinion: Transportation Researchers Still Care About Equity. This Week They're Proving It - Streetsblog USA

"But Crossroads: A Transportation Equity and Justice Convening, which kicks off this Thursday in Washington, D.C., is something different, something groundbreaking, something defiant. It represents a unified and steadfast commitment to a more equitable transportation system, amidst devastating federal cuts to transportation infrastructure and research, and leadership failing to meet the moment. In the past year, the Trump administration has dismantled and disrupted many federal efforts to address longstanding injustices in our nation's transportation investments and policies."

"Offices and bodies that provide guidance and oversight on transportation equity, like the U.S. Department of Transportation's Equity Task Force and the Civil Rights division of the Department of Justice, have been disrupted. Recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity have been sidelined. And several government-wide efforts to drive progress on equity and environmental justice have been scrubbed out entirely."

Crossroads convening in Washington, D.C. unites transportation researchers, practitioners, and advocates around a steadfast commitment to transportation equity and justice. The convening responds to severe federal cuts to transportation infrastructure and research and to leadership that has failed to address systemic inequities. Federal programs like the Reconnecting Communities Program have been gutted, cancelling projects in predominantly Black neighborhoods such as Roxbury, Boston. Oversight bodies and advisory committees on transportation equity and civil rights have been disrupted and sidelined. US DOT has linked federal infrastructure funding to immigration enforcement cooperation and dismantled diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. Congressional negotiations over surface transportation reauthorization risk entrenching inequitable policies.

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