The Metropolitan Council is evaluating the equity impacts of processes that fund, plan, and select regional transportation projects. The investments the Met Council makes, and how those investments are prioritized, can have long and lasting impacts on communities, neighborhoods, and families.
As value-systems evolve, investment in our transportation systems must move to align. Injustices like racial housing covenants were still legal as recently as 1968, when a lot of big transportation decisions were made that benefited one group over another.
As the region’s designated planning agency, the Met Council needs to look at how all types of transportation work to equitably benefit the people who use the system. Equity means including people from many different communities across the region in the process — especially those who are most affected.
Framework
This evaluation will focus on the populations defined in federal Title VI and Environmental Justice laws, specifically Black, Indigenous, and people of color, and low-income communities.
The Met Council has hired a consultant team for this evaluation. Their work is guided by an Equity Policy Group made up of community members who have lived experience using and living near the transportation system. The group will co-create an equity framework and tool for evaluating transportation investments, inform their methods, analyze the findings, and create the recommendations and outcomes of this work.