Transportation agencies consider trade-offs between investment options to address competing priorities with limited resources. Inadequate funding for all needed transportation improvements forces agencies to make difficult decisions across asset classes. The results of these decisions can have a positive impact on one performance measure but a negative impact on another. In addition to factors such as system preservation, mobility, and safety when making transportation investment decisions, equity is also an important consideration.

FHWA’s Transportation Asset Management Expert Task Group (TAM ETG) recognized the importance of equity as an emerging topic and prepared this document to explore existing initiatives underway in state, local, and regional transportation agencies to better consider equity in asset management decisions. The results indicate that equity considerations are more common in transportation planning activities than in asset management decisions impacting project selection. Therefore, the document presents suggestions for advancing the consideration of equity in asset management investment decisions.

Infrastructure Assets: Highway Assets, Transit Assets
Resource Types: Case Study/Practice Example
Capabilities: Communication, Data & Information Systems
Management Processes: Performance Based Planning & Programming, Performance Reporting & Communication, Resource Allocation, Strategic Direction