User:Fastfoodfanatic/Race and transportation in the United States

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Race and transportation in the United States are closely linked.

Roads[edit]

When roads, especially highways of the Interstate Highway System were being built, they were often built straight through neighborhoods populated primarily by people of color, especially African Americans, even when a white neighborhood or other alignment (such as an old railroad track) would be more direct, requiring residents' homes to be demolished,[1] or built to separate white neighborhoods with neighborhoods populated primarily by people of color. In some cases, highway revolts were started, to protest said construction.

Examples[edit]

Public transit[edit]

Public transit in the United States, especially local buses, and to a lesser extent passenger rail, have a huge stigma associated with them, specifically that they are mainly used by poorer people, especially racial minorities, who have no other way of getting around, which creates obstacles for funding, as well as implementation, such as local opposition to buses running to richer areas and malls on the grounds that it would bring criminals to the area.[2][3][4]

On the other hand, many forms of public transit (primarily heavy or light rail, streetcars, bus rapid transit and park-and-ride buses), in addition to walkability and bike lane projects, have been accused of gentrification at the expense of people of color.[2]

Examples[edit]

  • In Atlanta, it is often argued that racial politics play a role in the operation and future service planning for MARTA, the city's transit authority. Opponents of Georgia's transportation policies have alleged a race-based two-tiered system, where billions are spent by the state on highway expansion to aid the automobile commutes of mostly White residents of the suburbs and rural areas (like GRIP), while service cuts at MARTA have hurt mostly African Americans in low-income areas where residents cannot afford automobile ownership.[5] Proponents contest that a portion of state funding for highways comes from the gasoline tax, a user fee analogous to the fare MARTA riders pay. Supporters of MARTA have alleged that the lack of participation by other metro Atlanta counties is rooted in racism and classism.[5][6] In 1987, David Chesnut, then chairman of MARTA, stated, "The development of a regional transit system in the Atlanta area is being held hostage to race, and I think it's high time we admitted it and talked about it."[7] As part of its Title VI plan, MARTA data revealed that 75 percent of MARTA riders were Black in 2015.[8] MARTA is often given the racially charged backronym "Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta", referring to its mostly African American ridership, particularly outside of rush hours.[9][10]
  • In the 1990s in Buffalo, New York, Walden Galleria management opposed a bus from the majority Black inner city — and not those from majority white suburbs and even Canada — from stopping on the mall grounds. As a result, bus riders from the inner city getting off the bus had to cross seven lanes of traffic without a crosswalk to reach the mall. This led to the death of a 17-year-old Black teenager, Cynthia N. Wiggins, who was crossing the street from the bus stop to her job when she was hit by a dump truck, after which the mall was accused of racism. In settling a wrongful death claim against Walden Galleria and NFTA Metro and to prevent a boycott of the mall, the bus stop was soon moved to a point inside the mall, where it remains today.[11][12][13][14][15]
  • Washington Metro's College Park station was built further from the University of Maryland than planned due to opposition from university leaders. At the time, Washington D.C. was overwhelmingly Black, and the university was overwhelmingly white. In 2017, former Maryland Governor and Prince George's County Executive Parris Glendening admitted the university's decision to have the Metro station as far away from campus as possible (1.6 miles) was a "disaster" and racially biased, primarily due to administrators and community residents saying they did not want crime or undesirable people coming to campus on the Green Line from the poorer neighborhoods of Washington.[16]
  • In the 1960s in San Francisco, BART was designed to speed white commuters past minority neighborhoods. For example, it has stop spacing of 2.75 miles in the racially diverse and dense urban neighborhood of San Antonio, Oakland, but 1.75 miles in majority-white suburban Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill.[2] Despite this, in modern times, Blacks and Latinos are overrepresented in its ridership, with whites and Asians underrepresented.[17]

Policing[edit]

See also: Race and crime in the United States

Policing on many city transit systems, including New York City Transit, is often unfairly biased towards people of color, particularly Blacks and Latinos.

Racial representation in leadership[edit]

Minorities are regularly underrepresented in public transit leadership, despite being overrepresented (in most cases) in lower-level staff and system ridership. This causes issues.

Links to other aspects of policy[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Sullivan, Andy. "U.S. freeways flattened Black neighborhoods nationwide". Reuters. Thomson Reuters. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c Spieler, Christof. "Racism has shaped public transit, and it's riddled with inequities". Kinder Institute for Urban Research - Rice University. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
  3. ^ Hess, Amanda. "Race, Class, and the Stigma of Riding the Bus in America". The Atlantic. The Atlantic. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
  4. ^ Ramey, Corinne. "America's Unfair Rules of the Road". Slate. The Slate Group. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference cloaf was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Atlanta weighing transit expansion". The New York Times. August 13, 1989. Retrieved February 24, 2008.
  7. ^ Schmidt, William (July 22, 1987). "Racial roadblock seen in Atlanta transit system". The New York Times. Retrieved February 27, 2008.
  8. ^ "Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority Title VI Program Update June 2016 - 2019" (PDF). Itsmarta.com. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  9. ^ McCosh, John (February 11, 2001). "MARTA calls on marketers for image aid; Can soft drinks fill empty seats?". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
  10. ^ Torres, Angel O.; Bullard, Robert D.; Johnson, Glenn D. (2004). Highway robbery: transportation racism & new routes to equity. Boston: South End Press. p. 53. ISBN 0-89608-704-2.
  11. ^ Nieves, Evelyn (1996-12-19). "The Cynthia Wiggins case". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
  12. ^ "Buffalo, NY, Family Settles For $2.55 Mil. In Suit Charging Woman's Death Was Due To Racism At Mall (Jet)". Jet. 1999. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
  13. ^ "Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. takes case of black teen killed by dump truck on her way to mall". Jet. 1996. Retrieved 2008-05-18.
  14. ^ "Bed Bath & Beyond opens first area store in Galleria". The Buffalo News. 1997-05-01. Retrieved 2007-10-01.
  15. ^ "Bonwit Teller store closing". The Buffalo News. 1996-10-18. Retrieved 2007-10-01.
  16. ^ Carter-Conneen, Mike. "Former Maryland Governor: College Park UMD Metro location 'a huge mistake'". WJLA. Archived from the original on November 17, 2017. Retrieved November 16, 2017.
  17. ^ https://www.bart.gov/sites/default/files/docs/CS2020_Report_Issued032221.pdf [bare URL PDF]

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Fastfoodfanatic/Race_and_transportation_in_the_United_States&oldid=1124599863"