Truck Travel and Land Use Change: Examining The Implications of Highway Infrastructure for Air Quality and Environmental Justice

Project Description

Decades of theoretical and empirical scholarship demonstrate the relationship between transportation investments, land use change, and induced vehicle travel. A significant portion of induced VMT stems from freight travel, which would significantly increase in the cases where induced land development takes the form of warehouse and industrial land uses. What is the relationship between transportation infrastructure investments, particularly highway expansions, warehouse development, freight travel, and air quality? This project analyzes three case study communities to answer these questions. The research team statistically analyzes warehouse development along highway corridors with and without capacity expansion to identify the correlation between highway expansion and industrial growth, as well as estimates the induced freight trips and attendant air pollutant emissions from planned warehouse developments. Results illuminate the cumulative effects to nearby communities of highway expansion, induced growth, induced freight travel, and concomitant air pollution emissions and exposure. This research has important implications for environmental health, safety, and justice in some of California’s most pollutant-burdened communities.