Local and state governments across the United States spend billions of dollars each year building new transportation projects—including roadways, bike lanes, and rail lines. These investments play an important role in expanding access to employment, recreation, and services for Americans. That improved mobility and its associated neighborhood improvements, such as new station facilities, can also contribute to neighborhood demographic change. In some cases, this can mean gentrification, defined as the influx of new residents with higher incomes and educational attainment into formerly disinvested neighborhoods. If gentrification results in displacement—meaning long-time residents are involuntarily pushed out of the neighborhood or choose to leave because of economic or social pressure—then people with fewer resources could lose access to transportation options.
In this project, funded by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, we investigated what is known about the links between transportation investment and gentrification and surveyed practitioners working in the field to learn about how gentrification and displacement factored into transportation planning at their agencies.