The ability to move safely, easily, and comfortably through streets and public spaces is a cornerstone of freedom. However, decades of transportation policies and investments have disconnected, disenfranchised, and disempowered specific communities–including Black, Indigenous, and immigrant communities.

Many neighborhoods have experienced systemic disinvestment, resulting in streets without sidewalks, unreliable transit service, disconnected bike networks, and places without safe crosswalks. These failures mean that the country’s most dangerous roads are in low-income neighborhoods, Black neighborhoods, and Latine neighborhoods. Fatality rates among Black, Indigenous, and Latine pedestrians are alarmingly high compared to white pedestrians: Black pedestrians are more than twice as likely to die as white pedestrians and Indigenous pedestrians are almost five times as likely to die as white pedestrians. 

NACTO works with our members to move toward a more just transportation landscape, in which marginalized communities have access to safe, reliable, and affordable transportation designed to connect rather than separate. This effort permeates all of NACTO’s work, from our technical design guidance to our policy positions to our annual Designing Cities Conference. We strive to foster change at the staff level, organizational level, and industry level.