U.S. Department of Transportation’s Commitment to Investing in and Protecting Black Communities
Access to transportation is a basic necessity that all Americans need in order to thrive. But transportation — and the economic opportunities that come with both building and using America’s transportation systems — have not always been equitably available to all Americans. Historically, many federal transportation investments have failed to address transportation-related disparities for Black communities, or even made them worse. Advancing opportunity, equity, and accessibility for every member of the traveling public is one of the Department of Transportation’s highest priorities.
Thanks to historic funding made available through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, investments are being made in communities across the country to begin to right these wrongs of the past.
The Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) Discretionary Grant program helps communities across the country carry out road, rail, transit, and port projects with a focus on those that address climate change, ensure racial equity, support wealth creation, and remove barriers to opportunity.
In 2023, RAISE funding supported 162 projects in all 50 states, many of which will help protect Black communities. Selections for $1.8 billion in 2024 RAISE funding will be announced no later than June 27. Awarded FY 2023 projects include:
- The Birmingham Civil Rights Crossroads: Reconnecting Historic Neighborhoods Through Active Mobility Project in Birmingham, Alabama creates a 2.5-mile urban trail that traverses a pivotal landscape in America’s Civil Rights Movement. The project’s footprint is located in an area that was once one of our nation’s most prominent Black commercial centers with a high concentration of Black business ownership. While much of downtown Birmingham has started to revitalize, many low-income and underserved neighborhoods surrounding downtown have not experienced the same level of investment in transportation or public spaces. This project will provide an essential multimodal connection from some of Birmingham’s most underserved and under-invested neighborhoods to essential services downtown. See here for a video highlighting the project.
- The Trails to Transit: Reconnecting Atlanta Communities Project in Atlanta, Georgia will build a safer and more equitable transportation system through the construction of a 2.2-mile network of multi-use trails in northeast Atlanta. The Atlanta BeltLine connects communities that were intentionally segregated for generations by large infrastructure projects and banking policies that split the city and forged deep divisions by race and class. With $25 million in RAISE funding – the largest federal grant in Atlanta BeltLine history – this project will connect the BeltLine trail to a MARTA transit center for the first time, fulfilling the vision to connect with the region’s larger transportation network. It will also knit together the regional trail network, affordable housing, and job centers across a complex series of transportation barriers.
The Reconnecting Communities Pilot and Neighborhood Access and Equity discretionary grant programs – designed to reconnect communities divided by transportation infrastructure and part of President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative – was dedicated $1 billion in funding with the passage the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and an additional $3 billion provided through the Inflation Reduction Act. In the 2023 inaugural round of the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program, the Biden-Harris administration awarded grants for transformative, community-led solutions in disadvantaged communities, including capping interstates with parks, filling in sunken highways to reclaim the land for housing, and converting inhospitable transportation facilities to tree-lined Complete Streets. These projects will help revitalize communities, provide access to jobs and opportunity, and reduce pollution. Learn more about the Reconnecting Communities Pilot (RCP) Grant Program through our storymap here.
In March 2024, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced $3.33 billion in grant awards for 132 projects through the 2024 RCN program as part of the President’s Investing in America Agenda. Awarded projects this year include:
- The Broadway Main Street and Supporting Connections Project is one of two grants awarded to Portland, Oregon that will construct multimodal safety and streetscape improvements across Interstate 5 (I-5) in inner North/Northeast Portland. The project will connect the heart of the city’s historic Black neighborhood, Lower Albina, to neighborhoods and key destinations across I-5, a major grade separated facility that divided the neighborhood and displaced hundreds of residents when it was constructed.
- The second Portland grant, the I-5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project, will be to construct the project’s main reconnecting feature, a highway cover that will support new community space and future development while reconnecting Lower Albina to local streets over Interstate 5 (I-5). Building the highway cover is an essential first step to actualizing the community’s vision and improving the transportation network.
- The Reconnecting Atlanta’s Southside Communities: Atlanta BeltLine to Flint River Trail Project in Atlanta, Georgia is a multi-jurisdictional, regional solution that utilizes a multi-use trail to address the challenges that residents of Atlanta’s Southside have endured as the consequences of the construction of major interstates around Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. In the small railroad towns surrounding the airport, I-85, I-285, and GA-166 sliced the fabric of residential neighborhoods. This trail will connect schools, hospitals, job centers, Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) rail stations, the BeltLine, and employment centers. It will link disadvantaged communities — a regional collaboration crossing multiple jurisdictions for an area long passed over for federal transportation investments.
- The second Atlanta grant is for The Stitch Phase 1 Implementation, a cap of Interstates 75/85, known locally as the “Downtown Connector,” will seamlessly reconnect the torn urban fabric of downtown with a new major park, extensive transportation improvements, sustainable infrastructure, and increased access to affordable housing. The Downtown Connector was intentionally planned to run through low-income Black communities as a racially charged method of ridding Downtown of “blighted” areas. The Stitch will provide multi-modal connections over the interstate via multi-use paths, an improved surface transportation network, and enhanced transit amenities.
- The Reconnecting 4th Ave N: A Two-Way Vision for Reviving Legacy and Inspiring Progress Project in Birmingham, Alabama was awarded a grant for a 15-block Complete Streets redesign of Birmingham’s Black Main Street. The redesign will include converting the road from one-way to two-way and will help reconnect downtown neighborhoods and businesses divided by the construction of Interstate 65 in the 1960s. The project encompasses the Historic 4th Avenue Business District, a once thriving hub of Black businesses and community in Birmingham. This multimodal project will help to revive the access and connectivity that helped the community thrive prior to its conversion into a one-way street during the 1970s.
- The Reconciliation, Regeneration, and Reconnecting the Selma to Montgomery Trail through Equitable Transportation Infrastructure Project in Montgomery, Alabama will reconnect the West Montgomery residents located on the Selma-to-Montgomery Trail to opportunity by addressing poor social determinants of health that exist because of segregation, redlining, and the construction of Interstates 65 and 85. The project identifies many disenfranchised local communities that will benefit by enhancements to the trail. These enhancements will allow the City of Montgomery to reinvest in foundational transportation solutions in Historic West Montgomery to facilitate the renaissance of the Selma-to-Montgomery Trail community. This project was also supported through USDOT’s Thriving Communities Program.
This April, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced $23.6 million in funding through TCP to help 112 communities nationwide access federal resources and deliver projects funded by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. When added to the inaugural cohort announced in April 2023, this announcement brings the total number of communities supported by this program to 176. In the program’s first year, technical assistance support helped to increase the percentage of communities awarded a DOT grant to 58%, up from 39%.
The program provides two years of no-cost, intensive technical assistance to under-resourced and disadvantaged communities to help them identify, develop, and deliver transportation projects to achieve locally driven economic development, health, environment, mobility, and access goals. For example:
- In Omaha, Nebraska the Thriving Communities Program is providing the Metropolitan Area Planning Agency (MAPA) and its partners technical assistance focused on restoring the North Omaha community’s trust in transportation decision making, championing community engagement, and realizing positive change along the North Freeway corridor. To help rectify historical racial injustices in North Omaha, particularly those centered around the North Freeway, TCP technical assistance will be used to provide a Digital Urban Design Toolkit and create an Integrated Historical Report focused on the intertwined relationship between urban development, transportation decisions, and systemic racial injustices in North Omaha.
- In Chester, Pennsylvania – a community that is 71% Black – the Chester Economic Development Authority is providing partnership opportunities and stakeholder engagement to assist in rebuilding public trust regarding transportation infrastructure planning and investment to mitigate impacts from past environmental injustice issues, industrial use of waterfront and other undesirable land uses, and past political corruption.
- In the City of York, Alabama – situated within the traditional homeland of the Choctaw Nation and the Black Belt of Alabama – TCP support is facilitating a community-driven strategy for downtown redevelopment that incorporates current projects and future initiatives to align these efforts with mobility and safety improvements. York faces challenges with frequent train crossings causing significant traffic delays, creating safety issues, and delaying emergency service response times. Technical assistance is helping the community to identify and prepare to respond to funding opportunities that will reduce railroad crossing barriers and improve safety for all road users.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s University Transportation Centers (UTC) Program continues to strengthen its partnership and engage with HBCUs and MSIs by increasing research opportunities for institutions and advancing economic and educational opportunities in transportation. Each UTC is composed of a consortium of universities and community colleges. Funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, there are five National, ten Regional and twenty Tier One UTCs, which respectively received approximately $4 million, $3 million and $2 million this year and will annually through 2027.
Prairie View A&M University made history as the first HBCU to become a National UTC grantee through an open competition, and, overall, there are a record number of HBCUs and MSIs receiving UTC grants through 2027, including Morgan State University, North Carolina A&T State University, and 10 other HBCUs.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg recently signed a policy statement on Reducing Negative Impacts of Transportation Projects on Communities with Environmental Justices Concerns (Including Disadvantaged Communities and Communities with Significant Transportation Insecurities).
The policy statement was issued as of June 20, 2024, to reaffirm that it is the U.S. Department of Transportation’s policy to maximize use of resources to:
- Facilitate delivery of projects that will provide benefits to communities with Environmental Justice (EJ) concerns.
- Adequately analyze the direct, indirect, and cumulative effects of proposed projects on the health, environment, safety, and resiliency of communities with EJ concerns in the environmental review process.
- Consider best available science and information on any disparate health effects (including risks) arising from exposure to pollution and other environmental hazards, such as information related to the race, national origin, socioeconomic status, age, disability, and sex of the individuals exposed.
- Provide opportunities for early and meaningful involvement in the environmental review process by communities with environmental justice concerns potentially affected by a proposed action.
- Maximize the use of resources to facilitate delivery of projects that will provide benefits to communities with EJ concerns.
This policy statement confirms the Department’s commitment to both increase benefits and reduce harms experienced by communities with EJ concerns.