A Curated Collection of the U.S. DOT Volpe Center’s Recent Work in Transportation Equity

The U.S. DOT Volpe Center recently released a series of resources that outline our recent work in alignment with U.S. DOT’s Equity Action Plan, the Biden-Harris Administration’s Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities through the Federal Government, and the inclusion of transportation equity as one of U.S. DOT’s strategic priorities for FY22-26.

U.S. DOT is committed to advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice, environmental justice, and equal opportunity. The U.S. DOT Volpe Center has been working to support programs to reduce inequities and promote safe, affordable, and multimodal access to opportunities and services.

Read on to learn about our work to reduce inequities and increase accessibility across our transportation system and the communities they affect.

ENSURING THE U.S. TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM MEETS THE NEEDS OF ALL

The equity of our transportation system impacts everyone’s quality of life. Advancing transportation equity is at the heart of the U.S. DOT Volpe Center’s mission of transforming transportation for all. Since opening our doors in 1970, our multidisciplinary team of experts have worked together at the intersection of equity and multimodal transportation. Learn more about the U.S. DOT Volpe Center’s transportation equity expertise, capabilities, and recent work. LEARN MORE.

TRANSPORTATION EQUITY FOR ALL

To help communities integrate social equity considerations into transportation planning and operations, an innovative U.S. DOT Volpe Center team of data scientists, environmental engineers, GIS specialists, engineering psychologists, and environmental protection specialists built a Tableau-based prototype geospatial tool, Transportation for Social Equity. This interactive GIS tool is available for free to help communities visualize residential demographics and transportation data. LEARN MORE.

U.S. DOT VOLPE CENTER SUPPORTS NCDOT EQUITY AND INNOVATION INITIATIVES

The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) is committed to promoting and ensuring equal access and equal opportunity for all people—and promote the development and use of new and better solutions to connecting people, products, and places safely and efficiently. Since 2018, the U.S. DOT Volpe Center’s multimodal team of transportation research experts has worked to help NCDOT assess barriers to accessing the field of transportation technology as well as building a culture of innovation throughout the Department. LEARN MORE.

INCREASING ACCESS TO RAIL STATIONS FOR TRAVELERS WITH DISABILITIES

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that stations in the intercity rail transportation system be made readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities. FRA and Amtrak’s ADA Station Program aims to make each Amtrak station ADA compliant and accessible. The U.S. DOT Volpe Center supports this program by conducting design reviews of the completed construction plans and conducting site assessments at completed Amtrak stations—which helps FRA and Amtrak ensure everyone can access these public resources. LEARN MORE.

U.S. DOT VOLPE CENTER HELPS ADDRESS EQUITY IN TRANSPORTATION

A top priority of the Biden-Harris Administration and U.S. DOT is to address long-standing equity issues across government programs. One of the ways that the U.S. DOT Volpe Center supports this work is by leveraging existing data sources to address some of the most pressing transportation-related questions on the minds of policymakers and legislators. The U.S. DOT Volpe Center is providing expertise and technical support to multiple projects that research different aspects related to transportation equity. LEARN MORE.