Book Notes: Roadways for People: Rethinking Transportation Planning and Engineering by Lynn Peterson with Elizabeth Doerr

Roadways for People: Rethinking Transportation Planning and Engineering by Lynn Peterson with Elizabeth Doerr

Places Discussed

Various

Posted 2025-03-08

Book Notes by John December

In this book, Lynn Peterson describes a community solutions-based approach to planning and designing transportation systems. She shows how planners and engineers, working collaboratively with communities, can address problems by giving people choices in transportation.

The strength of this book is that Peterson shows many sides of planning and engineering issues. She defines her perspective as that of a "plangineer," a term reflecting thinking from the planning perspective (Peterson holds a Master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning) and the engineering viewpoint (she also holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master's degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering). Peterson draws on her Oregon Metro Council President role to show how many agencies, organizations, and community groups can work together to plan and develop regional transit. Peterson's description of the cooperative and collaborative process of building regional transportation is the principal value of this book. This book also calls for rethinking prior transportation planning and engineering assumptions. (See also: Shifting Gears: Toward a New Way of Thinking about Transportation (2023)).

While the community solutions-based approach stands as a force for cooperation, other factors may challenge and even work against cooperative approaches. Peterson describes how traffic engineers broke promises, followed an agenda that did not work in good faith with her cooperative efforts, and "undermined the trust that had been built through the collaboration" (p. 107). She cites Charles Marohn (pp. 110-111) and his book Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town (2021). Marohn's dramatic confession was that "I allied with those who wanted wider streets, faster speeds, and greater volume ...I joined with others in my profession to ridicule and marginalize those who disagreed with the standard industry approach" (Marohn, 2021, pp. 231-232)). A subsequent book by Wes Marshall, Killed by a Traffic Engineer: Shattering the Delusion that Science Underlies Our Transportation System (2024), fills in more fully the faulty assumptions, incomplete methodologies, ridicule, and deception traffic engineers have used to thwart the good faith and the cooperative processes Peterson describes. Kimble (2024) describes the embedded ideology that powers the perpetual highway-building emphasis of transportation policies.

Changes in policies on the national level and in many states by 2025 may work further against community-based free choices in transportation planning. As a result, the approach Peterson and Doerr put forth will require more resilience in the face of increasing challenges and must be honed methodologically to work with varying support (or antagonism) from sometimes hostile government legislators who seek the ultimate power to suppress local solutions. Because of this challenge, Peterson's approach is more important than ever, and after reading this book, I can appreciate this book's main points:

Transportation planning and engineering need a paradigm shift.
Peterson expresses a "career-long frustration" (p. 8) with engineers who go "through the motions of connecting, collaborating, and listening but then ultimately following outdated guidelines" (p. 9). Decades of a car-only approach to transportation planning and engineering "has wreaked havoc on communities" (p. 8). She specifically critiques (p. 9) the "... rational decision-making which is based on these four major metrics for success in a transportation project: design a safe project, for as many vehicles as you can at the highest speed you can, with an on-time project delivery, and under budget." However, she points out that "these metrics don't consider everything else involved in a transportation project: the land, the people, community cohesion, quality of life--the list goes on" (p. 9).
Metrics for planning and engineering oriented to vehicles only have missed out on serving the community--the people and their quality of life, as Peterson outlines. Moreover, the important connection between transportation and land use has been missed (p. 9). Peterson demonstrates how her role as a "plangineer" (planner + engineer) can help "...because I can work to see all sides of a problem. There is a real need to be able to see the macro perspective of the environment, economy, and social justice issue, and place the problem, or project in a larger context" (p. 9).
The "moment is ripe" (p. 21) for a community-solutions approach based on collaboration among communities and professionals, and Peterson's central thesis is that we need to "... change the process and the paradigm around transportation planning and transition to a more community-oriented approach, an approach that is rooted in racial equity, is guided by a process of community engagement, and involves deep collaboration with others in our field" (p. 10). In order to do this, Peterson asks that we acknowledge:
- "The need for a racial equity approach" (p. 10).
- "The need for better community engagement" (p. 12).
- "The need to understand the definition of 'Community' (p. 14)" with diverse, shared, differences: "A community is defined through quantitative and qualitative ways that include the people, their relationships, their cultures, how they organize themselves and why, their sense of place, and culture and spiritual places that define them" (p. 15).
- "The need for collaboration with other professionals" (p. 15).
- The foundation of a community solutions-based approach (p. 20) based on equity and inclusion, concepts of racial equity, collaboration, and community engagement (p. 21-23)
Context-sensitive, multimodal, and community-based approaches to transportation and engineering projects can serve people better.
Transportation engineering and planning have evolved from a narrow focus on vehicle and roadway concerns to a growing awareness that the context of transportation—including alternative modes, corridor management, adjacent land use, and the people and communities involved—are crucial considerations for better serving people.
Peterson traces the historical evolution of these perspectives. Context-sensitive design includes more transit modes, protection of historic districts, increased access in downtowns (p. 32), and "seeing our roadways within a community or natural environment rather than a means to get through a community" (p. 35). Performance-based practical design uses data to guide decision-making in a project (p. 40). Demand management addresses the problem of "traffic congestion that seemed to persist in urban areas no matter how many lanes were put in." Instead, demand management works to reduce road travel demand by providing alternatives, including active transportation (walking, biking), public transit, and high-occupancy vehicle lanes (p. 49). Least-cost planning includes a cost-benefit analysis accounting for different modes and societal costs (p. 51). Integrated corridor management (p. 57) considers the entire space around a roadway, including adjacent land and networks and different modes of transportation (p. 58).
Peterson observes that "these nonlinear, interconnected movements within our field show that the ideas, tools, and project examples are out there" (p. 60). However, moving away from an emphasis on traffic engineering from vehicles and roadways to a larger context can sometimes raise questions among practitioners and planners. She observes, "People have gotten hung up on terms such as 'context sensitive' and 'practical' when instead we should focus on meeting a list of community-wide, consesus-based outcomes, not just traffic outcomes" (p. 61).
Peterson describes the importance of this emerging awareness:

"When you analyze how many people live and work along these urban corridors in our metropolitan areas, you'll find that there are far more people impacted by health effects of transportation emissions and destruction of community economic vitality and community cohesion than there are vehicles on the roadway over the course of the day. The question is, who is benefitting from the investment, and how can we minimize or reduce the impacts while benefiting those who need it most" (pp. 60-61).

She further characterizes her approach:

"A community solutions-based approach means that you need to be curious and collaborative and not start with a fixed solution that you are trying to improve on the basis of a very thin public input process... The community solutions-based approach described in this book helps show how you can do this using racial equity, collaboration, and community engagement (p. 61).
For planning and engineering to be successful for a community, equity must serve as a foundation for policies in transportation and housing.
The legacy of transportation and housing policy includes racist zoning and regulatory processes (pp. 67-70), urban renewal and highway planning (pp. 70-74), gentrification and dislocation (p. 74-76) that acted to ignite and sustain unfair and systematically discriminatory practices affecting communities, neighborhoods, and people along and near transportation corridors. An equity framework (p. 76-87) can work to reveal, acknowledge, address, and work on processes to learn and heal from past harms and mistakes (see also Davis, 2023; Zivarts, 2024; Marohn, 2021; Marohn & Herriges, 2024).
- Equity experts (p. 90), advisory boards, and documentation (p. 91) can make sure there is accountability. Peterson gives the example of an Oregon DOT project to widen the freeway and found it would "have little environmental impact" (p. 92) but ignored the other impacts in the surrounding neighborhoods.
- A racial equity framework (p. 92) and goals around racial equity (p. 93) look not just to historic dislocations in transportation infrastructure but "transportation-plus" (p. 93) projects such as sidewalks and housing. The point is that "a roadway improvement project isn't just about the physical roadway but is also about the soul of the community, the people." (p. 93).
- In the process work, "Be open to seemingly non-engineering or non-transportation solutions to people's transport concerns, such as the issue of affordable housing, which in the end involves access but also a need to retain community cohesiveness." (p. 94)
- Peterson warns that "If you don't take equity into account, you are guaranteed to fail many underrepresented people in your community. And that will further sow distrust and disenfranchisement." (p. 94)
Collaboration that blends expertise from different perspectives improves outcomes for communities.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has principles for infrastructure, equitable participation, society's needs, skills, and quality of life (p. 109). From these, Peterson emphasizes that "collaboration with your colleagues and with your community are all a part of fulfilling these principles" (p. 109).
Peterson describes "Getting Out of Our Silos" in Chapter 4 to build trust and bring in a variety of experiences. This includes "considerations related to modern concerns--land use and development, traffic patterns, community values, politics, and the evolution of technology and engineering solutions" to get people involved who know these areas (p. 111). Different professional perspectives come from "a team of people with diverse ranges of expertise and connections with the community... everything is transportation related in some respect, a good outcome must require many viewpoints within an agency and with external partners" (pp. 112-113). In the "classic fight between engineers and planners," allow a "hot seat" method to take turns giving input from all (p. 114) and establish common values (p. 115).
For accountability, document at the outset the collaborative process, recommendations, roles, expectations, framework, timeline, input, documentation responsibilities, shared values, and processes (p. 118).
A community solutions-based approach works continuously to develop projects in an iterative, bottom-up process.
Peterson states at the outset that the "community solutions-based approach is... about the values and needs of the people in the surrounding community" and seeks to engage with those who have been traditionally left out of the process or who have been historically marginalized (p. 122).
The figure on page 137 summarizes this community solutions-based approach in terms of the "learning loops" utilized at each stage of the project problem statement, scoping, plan, design, implementation, testing, and work on a community benefits agreement.

Source: Source: Peterson, Lynn. (2022). Roadways for people: rethinking transportation planning and engineering / Lynn Peterson with Elizabeth Doerr, Island Press, p137.

This diagram illustrates how a project team and advisory committee continuously engage the community in an iterative process. This involves elements such as case studies (p. 126), a detailed understanding of the community solutions-based approach (p. 136), a problem statement (p. 139), geographic scope (p. 158), and a community benefits agreement (p. 175).
Activities include community engagement (p. 123), creating the problem statement (p. 139), assembling the project team (p. 139), learning and listening to and understanding context (p. 142), establishing an advisory committee (p. 151), rescoping and testing (p. 154), identifying community needs (p. 161), planning and testing (p. 163), designing and testing (p. 183), and implementing the design (p. 187).
A community solutions-based approach can avoid mistakes of the past through a paradigm shift in transportation engineering and planning.
Peterson observes, "We will need to look at how we do our work on all projects to make sure that we're not simply repeating the mistakes of the past" (p. 191). She uses as an example the widespread understanding that the displacement of people from highway construction (p. 192; see also Kimble, 2024) remains an issue. A 2021 Los Angeles Times investigation of transportation projects since 1991 showed disproportionately affected Black and Latino neighborhoods (p. 192). This "investigation shows that the way we've been planning, designing, and building our roadways harms communities, and it will continue to do so if we don't engage in a paradigm shift in transportation engineering and planning." (p. 192).
Peterson explains that a community solutions-based approach "starts with prioritizing people within a community over budgets and timelines... [and] ...centering those people and their community as a part of the process." (p. 192). She summarizes:

"Being a transportation professional is not about building the physical roadways just for cars. We're there to build communities that revolve around the people who live there. To do that, the overarching elements of strong racial equity, collaboration, and community engagement will help us build thriving communities" and the specifics including "schools, health care, and well-paying jobs" (p. 192).

I see a bigger picture of impediments to the cooperative approach.

The long-standing faults of traffic engineering, as described by Marshall (2024) and Marohn (2021), have often subverted the cooperative efforts that Peterson describes. Rejection of a community-solutions approach may be fueled by ideology (Kimble, 2024) or technological determinism (Norton, 2021). Legislation against local transportation choices can thwart the freedom of people in communities to choose and fund local transportation modes.

The process Peterson describes must help people understand the formation of car bias, which has been many decades in the making. The bias toward cars grew to dependency on cars, which has taken on a circular system of reinforcement. This bias can obscure the memory or reject the history of multimodal transportation in America (Berman, 2023; Spieler, 2018) and make it seem as if a car-only approach is the final solution to transportation.

The ideology of automobile orientation developed in the 20th century. It morphed into a self-supporting circular system of dependency on cars that became only stronger as it embedded itself in transportation infrastructure and land use. The term "motordom," as described by Norton (2008), led to persistent automobile technofuturism (Norton, 2021). Researchers Walker, Tapp, and Davis (2022), in their article, "Motonormativity: How Social Norms Hide a Major Public Health Hazard," describe how automobile bias remains an unexamined force that introduces environmental and health hazards. Car dependency as a result of policies has warped cities (Kay, 1997; Kenworthy, 2017; Newman & Kenworthy, 2021), endangering a healthy mix of transportation options. Shoup (2018) and Mepham (2024) have revealed the way parking policies have affected land use in cities. Marshall (2024), Handy (2023), and Marohn (2021) have also questioned the assumptions underlying transportation systems. The story of the past century has been one of diminishing transportation options and the loss of urban fabrics for walking and transportation. The public input and engagement Peterson and Doerr describe should be informed by history and the recognition of how bias and ideology play a role in weakening freedom of transportation choices.

Ultimately, the economic vitality, livability, health, and justice for all people in cities and regions rests on rethinking transportation in terms of cooperative, community-based solutions.

Roadways for People: Rethinking Transportation Planning and Engineering by Lynn Peterson with Elizabeth Doerr

Places Discussed

Book Notes by John December

I see a bigger picture of impediments to the cooperative approach.

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