[sustran] Re: Social Impact Assessment for Highway Development

[Todd Litman]

At 12:55 PM 7/7/99 +0800, you wrote:
>I have had a request for information from a Malaysian NGO about Social
>Impact Assessment for Highway Development
>
>Tamaddun Research Trust has been commissioned to look into this for a new
>proposed intercity expressway in the eastern part of Peninsular Malaysia.
>The terrain involved will include mainly rural areas but will cut accross
>some urban areas, on flat as well as hilly or even mountainous terrain, and
>may also involve displacement of people as well as natural habitats.
>
>They are at an early stage on exploring this issue and it is not my
>speciality. Can anyone please suggest some key references, useful websites
>or contacts to help them with this. 
>
>I have one book from the World Bank, with a helpful section on social
>impacts. It is "Roads and the Environment: A Handbook", September 1994,
>Report TWU 13, The World Bank. It has a section on "Human and Social
>Environment".  Any additional references would be most appreciated. 


This is a big subject. Most transportation professionals are only familiar
with a portion of the many social impacts (both positive and negative,
direct and indirect, monetary and non-monetary) that result from a major
transportation project. I'm currently involved in a major study that is
attempting to develop a typology of these impacts and provide recommended
ways to quantify them, but it will be many months before this work becomes
available.

Major categories include:

* Economic productivity, development and balance of trade impacts.
* Impacts on neighborhoods, including environmental degradation,
displacement and barrier effect.
* Inducement for low-density, urban periphery development (urban sprawl).
* Impacts on future transportation choices (such as a highway that reduces
the operating efficiency of transit services).
* Consumers' transportation costs.
* Accident costs.
* Equity impacts (which is a perspective that can be applied to each of the
previously mentioned impacts).


Here are some reports that you might want to review:

Adamowicz, W. et al, "Combining Revealed and Stated Preference Methods for
Valuing Environmental Amenities," Journal of Environmental Economics and
Management, v.3, n.3, 1994.

Al-Mosaind et al., "Light Rail Transit Station and Property Values: A
Hedonic Price Approach," in Transportation Research Record, No. 1466,
Transportation Research Board, 1994.

Burchell, R., et al., The Costs of Sprawl - Revisited, TCRP Report 39,
Transportation Research Board (www.nas.edu/trb), 1998.

Steven Burrington and Bennet Heart, City Routes, City Rights: Building
Livable Neighborhoods and Environmental Justice by Fixing Transportation,
Conservation Law Foundation (Boston; www.clf.org, 1998.

Robert Bullard and Glenn Johnson (eds), Just Transportation; Dismantling
Race & Class Barriers to Mobility, New Society Publishing (Gabriola Island,
BC), 1997.

Burkhardt, J. et al., Assessment of the Economic Impacts of Rural Public
Transportation, TCRP Report 34, TRB, 1998.

Robert DeSanto and William Bailey, "Environmental Justice Tools and
Assessment Practices," presented at Commuter Rail/Rapid Transit Conference,
Toronto (www.apta.com), May 22-27, 1999; "Environmental Justice; A Vital
Aspect of Project Planning," in Transportation Network Transfer Notes, Vol.
6, No. 1, Parsons Transportation Group, Jan-Feb. 1999.

Hank Dittmar, "Isn't It Time We Talked About Equity" Progress, Vol. IV, No.
5, Surface Transportation Policy Project (Washington DC; www.transact.org),
June 1994.

David Forkenbrock and Lisa Schweitzer, Environmental Justice and
Transportation Investment Policy, Public Policy Center, University of Iowa
(Iowa City), 1997.

Ganley, J. and J. Cubbin (1992).  Public Sector Efficiency Measurement,
North Holland Press.

Phil Goodwin, "Demographic Impacts, Social Consequences, and the Transport
Debate," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Vol. 6, No. 2, Summer 1990, 76-89.

David Hodge, "Social Impacts of Urban Transportation Decisions: Equity
Impacts," in The Geography of Urban Transportation, Susan Hanson (Ed.)
Guilford Press (New York), 1986.

C. Jotin Khisty, "Operationalizing Concepts of Equity for Public Project
Investment," Transportation Research Record, 1559, 1997, pp. 94-99.

Tore Langmyhr, "Managing Equity; The Case of Road Pricing," Transport
Policy, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1997, pp. 25-39.

Douglass Lee, "Making the Concept of Equity Operational," Transportation
Research Record 677, 1987, pp. 46-53. 

Litman, Todd, Land Use Impact Costs of Transportation, Victoria Transport
Policy Institute  (www.islandnet.com/~litman), 19958.

Litman, Todd, Transportation Cost Analysis: Techniques, Estimates and
Implications, Victoria Transport Policy Institute
(www.islandnet.com/~litman), 1999. Includes discussion of non-market
costing techniques, and definitions of 20 cost categories.

McMillan, M, B. Reid and D. Gillen, "An extension of the Hedonic Approach
for Estimating the Value of Quiet", Land Economics, August 1980.

Mitchell, Merle, "Links Between Transport Policy and Social Policy," in
Ogden et. Al, eds: Transport Policies for the New Millennium, Monash
University (Australia), 1994.
Oron, Y, D. Pines and E. Sheshinski, "The Effect of Nuisances Associated
with Urban Traffic on Suburbanization and Land Values," Journal of
UrbanEconomics, October 1974.

Stuart Murray, Social Exclusion and Integrated Transport, University of
Manchester Transport Seminar (www.art.man.ac.uk/transres/socexclu5.htm), 1998.

Tom Rickert,  Mobility for All: Accessible Transportation Around the World,
Access Exchange International, Swedish Institute on Independent Living
(www.independentliving.org/Mobility/index.html), 1998. 

Schaeffer and Sclar, Access for All, Columbia University Press (New York),
1980.
Rosenbloom and Altshuler in "Equity Issues in Urban Transportation", Policy
Studies Journal, Autumn 1977, p. 29-39.

The Highway Cost & Pricing Study, by Cambridge Systematics for the
Wisconsin Dept. of Transportation Translinks 21 project includes
comprehensive equity analysis.

Access to Opportunity: Cooperative Planning to Improve Mobility for
Residents of Inner-City Communities, East-West Gateway Coordination Council
(St. Louis, www.ewgateway.org), 1995.


Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, Transit and Urban Form, TCRP Report
16, TRB, 1996.

Workman, Steven and Daniel Brod, Measuring the Neighborhood Benefits of
Rail Transit Accessibility, Hickling Lewis Brod, paper 97-1371,
Transportation Research Board Annual Conference, 1997.

World Bank, Sustainable Transport: Priorities for Policy Sector Reform,
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 1995.


Here are website:

Access Exchange International (email: globalride-sf at worldnet.att.net) is a
provides resources for improving mobility services for physically disabled
people throughout the world.

The Center for Neighborhood Technology (www.cnt.org/lem/apaframe.htm)
operates programs that address transportation, land use and housing issues
in urban America.

The Community Transportation Association (www.ctaa.org) is a coaltion of
agencies that provide mobility services for non-drivers.

The Conservation Law Foundation (www.clf.org) has programs and materials
dealing with transportation equity.

Detour Publications (www.web.apc.org/~detour) provides information related
to urban ecology, equity and transportation planning.

The Environmental Defence Fund (www.edf.org) works on a number of
initiatives to integrate environmental and equity goals.

The International Bicycle Fund (www.ibike.org) is a non-governmental,
non-profit organization, promoting bicycle transport and international
understanding. 

RoadPeace (www.roadpeace.org.uk) is the United Kingdom's national charity
for road crash victims, "Working for Real Road Safety; Supporting those
bereaved or injured in a road crash."

The Surface Transportation Policy Project (www.transact.org)  works to
create more equitable and environmentally responsible transportation policies.

Transportation Alternatives (www.transalt.org) represents the interests of
non-drivers in New York City.

U.S. Department of Transportation has Environmental Justice information at
http://www.dot.gov/ost/docr/EJ.HTM and http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment.


Sincerely,

Todd Litman, Director
Victoria Transport Policy Institute
"Efficiency - Equity - Clarity"
1250 Rudlin Street
Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, Canada
Phone & Fax: 250-360-1560
E-mail:  litman at islandnet.com
Website: http://www.islandnet.com/~litman