Key takeaways:
- The negative impacts of discriminatory housing policies from the 1950s known as redlining continue today through racial segregation, poverty, and income inequality. As a result of these past policies, Black neighborhoods still disproportionately experience decreased property values, community disinvestment, and intergenerational wealth disparity.
- Residents in historically redlined neighborhoods are at great risk of pedestrian crashes today. They are more likely to rely on public transit or active transportation like walking, biking, and rolling meanwhile living in neighborhoods that lack sidewalks, crosswalks, and street lighting.
Implications:
- Pedestrian safety is not solely a matter of transportation policy but intersects with other policy decisions in housing, community development, and public health, to name a few. This calls for practitioners and advocates across these sectors to work together on policy and investment that rectify past harms created by redlining.
Taylor, N.L., Porter, J.M., Bryan, S., Harmon, K.J., Sandt, L. “Structural racism and pedestrian safety: Measuring the association between historical redlining and contemporary pedestrian fatalities across the United States.” American Journal of Public Health, (2023).
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