DISMANTLING TRANSPORTATION APARTHEID: THE QUEST FOR EQUITY. IN SPRAWL CITY. RACE, POLITICS, AND PLANNING IN ATLANTA

The objective of this paper is to examine the social, economic, and environmental consequences of transportation planning in metropolitan Atlanta. Transportation is a key component to building economically viable and sustainable communities in the rapidly growing Atlanta metropolitan region. All transportation modes are not created equal. Federal transportation policies, taxing structure, and funding schemes have contributed to the inequity between various transportation modes (i.e. private automobile, rail, bus, and airplane). Georgia DOT and the ARC have a major responsibility to ensure that their programs, policies, and practices do not discriminate against or adversely impact people of color and the poor in the region. Transportation is essential to improving economic and physical mobility of Atlanta's poor and people of color who are concentrated in central city neighborhoods and away from suburban economic activity centers. Transportation concerns raised by environmental justice groups revolve around fairness and equity. The regions heavy-handed emphasis on road building has resulted in traffic gridlock and polluted air. Atlantans are paying a high price in traffic delays, wasted energy, and health threats. Sprawl is even making some people sick. Transportation agencies need to work with environmental justice, community-based groups as well as historically black colleges and universities in the design of public involvement and communication plans to reach the most vulnerable-urban communities, the poor, the elderly, the disabled, the carless, the young, and people of color.