The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has released the 2023 Equity Action Plan. The plan is a part of USDOT’s implementation of Executive Order 14091 - “Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.”
“The Biden-Harris administration believes that transportation can be a powerful engine of opportunity - and that's why we have made it a priority to bring good infrastructure to all communities, including those who have not fairly benefited from past infrastructure investments,” said USDOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “The U.S. Department of Transportation is proud to outline progress we’ve made and further actions we are taking this year to bring the benefits and jobs of transportation to all Americans, whether they live in a big city, a rural community or anywhere in between.”
The 2023 update of the Equity Action Plan outlines new actions USDOT is committing to across the following five focus areas: Wealth Creation, Power of Community, Proactive Intervention, Planning and Capacity Building, Expanding Access and Institutionalizing Equity. The highlighted actions are efforts USDOT is undertaking to address key disparities, including disproportionately high traffic fatality rates among Black people and Tribal communities, high transportation insecurity and cost burdens experienced by low-income households and rural communities and underrepresentation of Black-, Hispanic- and women-owned small businesses receiving USDOT direct contracts. The document also features dozens of recent accomplishments across each focus area since the publication of USDOT’s first Equity Action Plan in 2022, including:
- Wealth Creation: The Office of the Secretary issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to modernize the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) and Airport Concession DBE program regulations to help level playing fields for small, disadvantaged businesses (July 2022).
- Power of Community: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published a final rule updating the Uniform State Highway Safety Grant Program to require NHTSA grant recipients to conduct meaningful public engagement among affected communities.
- Proactive Intervention Planning and Capacity Building: Through the Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Program, USDOT has awarded $185 million to disadvantaged communities and published a joint Fiscal Year 2023 Notice of Funding Opportunity that makes up to $3.16 billion available for community-centered connection (February, July 2023).
- Expanding Access: The Federal Transit Administration announced 15 projects in nine states that will receive approximately $686 million under the new All Stations Accessibility Program (December 2022).
- Institutionalizing Equity: USDOT hosted a department-wide equity summit for USDOT employees, organized by the USDOT Equity Community of Practice to share best practices to advance equity (June 2023).
The 2023 update to the USDOT Equity Action Plan was informed by feedback collected through internal and external engagement activities, including a public request for information and public in-person and virtual meetings. The USDOT Equity Council – a group of more than 30 modal leaders and career staff from across USDOT and chaired by Secretary Buttigieg – guided the process to update the Equity Action Plan as part of the broader USDOT effort to address historical and systemic patterns of disparity in transportation.
The document will be updated on an annual basis to reflect new metrics and actions USDOT will be taking to ensure that all communities receive the benefits that transportation brings and are not left out or made to shoulder disproportionate burdens caused by transportation infrastructure.
In addition to the 2023 update to the Equity Action Plan, USDOT is also releasing the Transportation Data and Equity Hub (Hub), a one-stop-shop to find tools, metrics and data to analyze transportation access and the impacts of the transportation system on communities. Users can explore data, maps and other visualizations of equity-related data by visiting the Explore the Data, Variable Explorer or Tools, Maps and Apps pages. Users can also utilize the Hub to make their own maps using free data and tools provided by USDOT.
More information on the 2023 update to the Equality Action Plan can be found on USDOT’s website.
