Civil Rights
Car Dependence Is a Poverty Trap That States Exploit to Raise Money
State and local governments in much of the country use the threat of drivers license suspension to impose fines and sanctions that can entrap people in a vicious cycle of indebtedness.
September 29, 2017
New Oregon Law Aims to Shed Light on Police Bias in Traffic Stops
You can't end discrimination in traffic stops if you don't know how bad the problem is, but only a handful of states collect comprehensive racial data on traffic enforcement. Now you can add one more to the list.
August 21, 2017
Seattle Council Member Asks Whether “Jaywalking” Laws Do More Harm Than Good
The concept of "jaywalking" has become deeply embedded in American culture, but if you go back just a few generations, the idea that your mere presence in the street could be illegal was a novel idea. Now one elected official in Seattle is suggesting that laws penalizing people outside of cars have gone too far.
July 28, 2017
Trump DOT Shuts Down Civil Rights Probe of Larry Hogan’s Decision to Kill the Red Line
The issue may be settled at U.S. DOT, but it's not going away. All five Democratic challengers to Larry Hogan's 2018 gubernatorial run have said they'll revive the Red Line.
July 17, 2017
How You Can Tell Larry Hogan’s Decision to Kill the Red Line Was Racially Discriminatory
He canceled the Red Line, which would serve predominantly black Baltimore neighborhoods, but not the Purple Line, which will serve a whiter, more affluent population but is not demonstrably more cost-effective.
April 21, 2017
For People of Color, Barriers to Biking Go Far Beyond Infrastructure, Study Shows
New research from New Jersey shows huge gaps in conventional wisdom.
April 18, 2017
The “Jaywalker” Brutalized By Sacramento Police Was Stopped for No Reason at All
When the line between a legally justifiable stop and outright harassment is so thin, it can easily become a pretext for racial profiling.
April 13, 2017
Maryland Robbed Transit to Pay for Highways, So U.S. DOT Launched a Civil Rights Probe
On the last day of the Obama presidency, U.S. DOT announced it will investigate whether Maryland Governor Larry Hogan's unilateral decision to cancel the Baltimore Red Line light rail project violates federal civil rights law. U.S. DOT will also look into whether the state's overall transportation spending discriminates against people of color.
January 26, 2017
Civil Rights Advocates Challenge Missouri DOT’s Discriminatory Spending
Missouri, like many other states, shifts transportation funds from cities to rural areas -- it collects most gas tax revenue from urban areas and spends it on roads in the hinterlands. And as in many other states, this amounts to a massive transfer of resources from the places where most people of color live.
September 7, 2016
The Right to Peaceful Assembly vs. the “Right” to Convenient Motoring
Demonstrations against police brutality spilled onto streets and highways in American cities this weekend, with protesters stopping traffic in Baton Rouge, Memphis, St. Paul, Los Angeles, and Oakland.
July 11, 2016