Swati Prakash, MS, West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc., 271 West 125th Street, Suite 308, New York, NY 10027, 212-961-1000, swati@weact.org

Despite the rise of the environmental justice movement in the past two decades, and the increased incorporation of environmental justice principles into transportation policy, significant geographic and racial disparities in the health risks associated with public transportation continue to exist across the nation. This presentation focuses on a representative case -- the disproportionate presence and expansion of public diesel bus depots in communities of color in Northern Manhattan, where residents face some of the highest childhood asthma rates in the nation. This presentation examines the demographic disparities in proximity to diesel facilities and the documented environmental health risks associated with diesel exhaust. The underlying factors that have given rise to this stark racial disparity in exposure to transportation-related risk will be examined using an environmental justice framework, and the barriers to meaningful participation in transportation and land use decision-making by communities most impacted by transportation-related activities will be described. The case study focuses on West Harlem Environmental Action's activism over a 15-year period to mitigate the concentration of diesel facilities and resulting health risks in Northern Manhattan. The presentation concludes with recommendations for incorporating public health concerns into transportation planning frameworks at the local and regional levels, paving the way for eliminating racial disparities in transportation-related environmental health risks.

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