Advancing Equity and accessibility in Maryland's Transportation System: Strategies for Integrating Mobility Innovations with Community Needs

Project Abstract

The Quarterly Report explores the features of the Consolidated Transportation Program CTP annual attainment report 2024 and the current equity mapping outcomes considered by Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT). The report also evaluates three equity-related toolkits, namely the Comprehensive Statewide Needs Assessment (CSNA), the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST), and the Equitable Transportation Community (ETC) Explorer. The authors have tried evaluate the efficacy of these tools in providing accurate equity assessments for MDOT. The report also mentions some additional equity toolkits implemented by the various government agencies and private companies. The document provides potential use cases and applications for MDOT to be able to use the equity perspective in several projects, plans, grants, and outcome assessments. The report mentions some examples of performance measures used in equity-related evaluations of transportation projects. The report ends with the outline for the next task as a part of this project.

Universities Involved

Morgan State University

Principle Investigators

Dr. Mansoureh Jeihani 

Dr. Mansha Swami

Funding Sources 

MDOT

Start Date

Jan 1, 2024

Completion Date

Dec 31, 2024

Expected Research Outcomes

The report will aim to conduct a detailed investigation into which performance measures are most critical and which performance measures are imperatively associated with the equity-related issues. The NTC team will first identify the performance measures (some examples are mentioned in Article 1.3 & Appendix A of this report) and evaluate the relevant ones as per the requirements of MDOT. Once the identification of all the performance measures is complete, the NTC team will discuss with MDOT to determine which of these performance measures align with the interests of MDOT. Furthermore, the measures and outcomes already in the MDOT attainment report will be categorized for each department. Any newly added performance measures (either from MDOT or this project) will be evaluated for a sample geography to demonstrate the evaluation process.

Subject Areas

Equity, Accessibility, Public Policy