AMBER ONTIVEROS (ONTIVEROS & ASSOCIATES)

ETHAN CONNER-ROSS (ECONSULT SOLUTIONS)

July 13, 2015

Title VI Implications of State of Good Repair

OVERVIEW

Transportation Equity

State of Good Repair

Service Equity Analysis

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WHAT IS TRANSPORTATION EQUITY?

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• Ensure opportunities for meaningful public involvement in the transportation planning process;

• Be held to standards of public accountability and financial transparency;

• Equally prioritize efforts to revitalize poor and minority communities in addition to expanding infrastructure;

• Ensure benefits and burdens from transportation projects (e.g., jobs, pollution, etc.) are equally distributed across all income levels;

• Provide high quality services to low-income & minority communities.

TITLE VI

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• Title VI – Civil Rights Act of 1964

– “No person shall, on the grounds of race, color or national origin, be excluded from participation, denied benefits of, or otherwise subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance”

• Prohibits intentional discrimination and disparate impact.

• Disproportionate affect on minority populations

– Comparative analysis between the system and the affected group

TITLE VI

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• Easy to discuss the negative ramifications of Title VI.

• It’s much harder to discuss policies that have a positive impact on disenfranchised populations.

• Title VI can be a means to create policies.

• Policies that result in providing high quality services to low-income & minority communities.

NEW STARTS OR SGR

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• Strategy to build political support is to focus on New Starts projects

• Build a coalition amongst the business community

• Create jobs and opportunities for DBE’s

• Is that the only way?

• Focus on State of Good Repair Investments

STATE OF GOOD REPAIR

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• Strategy to build political support

• Not as sexy as NS, but it’s more money and requires less political capital

• Build a coalition amongst the business community

• Create jobs and opportunities for DBE’s

FTA: SERVICE EQUITY ANALYSIS

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• Required for capital improvements representing a major service change – For transit providers in an urbanized area (UZA)

with a population greater than 200,000 and with 50 or more fixed route vehicles

• Comparison analysis of impacts likely to be experienced by Title VI and EJ population against those likely to be experienced by non-Title VI and EJ populations.

SGR EQUITY ANALYSIS

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• Service Equity: Usually applied to new projects

• Majority of spending for many agencies is on State of Good Repair

– New York Metropolitan Transit Authority 2015-2019 capital plan: 73% of spending to “core” programs (“renewing the system to promote safe and reliable service”)

– Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority FY 2015-2020 capital plan: 64% of spending to “base capital investments” (“primarily state of good repair and safety”)

– Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s FY 2015-2019 capital investment program: 65% of spending to “state of good repair” investments.

• Service Equity framework can be applied to SGR projects

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

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• Conducting Service Equity Analysis to demonstrate value for SGR projects– Maintaining service for existing ridership is critical for

transportation equity– Create sustainable jobs and opportunities for DBEs

• Using Service Equity Analysis to compare the equity implications of various existing routes– Relative usage of existing services by Title VI and EJ

protected populations

SERVICE EQUITY METHODOLOGY

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• “Population compares the population in Census blocks or block groups served by the affected route(s) with the population of the service area”

• “Ridership” compares the ridership of the affected route(s) with the ridership of the system”

SERVICE EQUITY METHODOLOGY

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Strengths:• Comparison of like populations• Comparison of like data sources

Weaknesses:• Assumptions about ridership distribution• Data collection and statistical representativeness• Difficult to apply to system-wide analysis

SERVICE EQUITY METHODOLOGY

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Ridership-Adjusted Population Analysis

When both ridership and population data are available:

1) Map riders back to home Census tract (or TAZ)

2) Use known demographics of the Census tracts

3) Calculate ridership-weighted demographic profile of service area or route

RIDERSHIP-ADJUSTED POPULATION

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RIDERSHIP-ADJUSTED POPULATION – PHILA REGION

Census tracts are weighted according to their contribution to ridership, rather than their total population, to create a composite demographic profile ridership within the service area.

SERVICE AREA ANALYSIS

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Method MinorityPersons

Low-IncomeHouseholds

Population Only 37% 22%

Ridership-Adjusted 50% 32%

% Difference 36% 48%

MINORITY PERSONSRIDERSHIP-ADJUSTED POPULATION

SERVICE AREA ANALYSISMETHODOLOGY COMPARI-

SON

Existing routes are serving minority and low- income communities

ROUTE LEVEL ANALYSIS

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RIDERSHIP-ADJUSTED DISTRIBU-TION

ADJACENT CENSUS TRACTS

ROUTE LEVEL ANALYSIS

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MINORITY PERSONSRIDERSHIP-ADJUSTED POPULATION

MinorityPersons

Low-IncomeHouseholds

Service Area 50% 32%

Market-Frankford Line 53% 36%

% Difference 7% 11%

SERVICE AREA VS. ROUTERIDERSHIP-ADJUSTED

MFL serves minority and low- income communities more than the avg. route

Q & A

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