University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons CUREJ - College Undergraduate Research Electronic Journal College of Arts and Sciences 2014 Racial Bias and Interstate Highway Planning: A Mixed Methods Approach Bradford P. Sherman University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/curej Part of the American Politics Commons, Infrastructure Commons, Transportation Commons, and the Urban Studies Commons Recommended Citation Sherman, Bradford P., "Racial Bias and Interstate Highway Planning: A Mixed Methods Approach" 01 January 2014. CUREJ: College Undergraduate Research Electronic Journal, University of Pennsylvania, https://repository.upenn.edu/curej/176. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/curej/176 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Racial Bias and Interstate Highway Planning: A Mixed Methods Approach Abstract This paper is an analysis of highway alignments based on the census tracts that surround them. First, I perform a quantitative analysis of the tracts with highways and the percentage of non-white and African- Americans in these tracts as opposed to in the state and region in general. In areas where the T-Tests noted a significant difference, a case study approach was employed to conjecture as to the reasoning for these suspect alignments. Keywords highways, racial bias, prejudice, racism, mixed methods, quantitative, qualitative, mapping, Political Science, Adolph Reed, Reed, Adolph Disciplines American Politics | Infrastructure | Transportation | Urban Studies This article is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/curej/176 Political Science Honors Thesis Racial Bias and Interstate Planning: A Mixed Methods Approach Bradford Sherman, Adviser: Professor Adolph Reed Spring 2014 Sherman i Table of Contents Preface............................................................................................................................................. v Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Structure ...................................................................................................................................... 2 Historical Background .................................................................................................................... 3 Highway Planning Process ......................................................................................................... 6 Openness in Planning .................................................................................................................. 8 New Regionalism ...................................................................................................................... 10 Caveats of New Regionalism .................................................................................................... 12 Review of Relevant Literature ...................................................................................................... 13 Quantitative Section ...................................................................................................................... 17 Detailed Methods ...................................................................................................................... 17 Overall Results .......................................................................................................................... 19 Data Based Conclusions ........................................................................................................... 24 Data Driven Case Studies ............................................................................................................. 25 Tampa, Florida .......................................................................................................................... 26 Phoenix, Arizona....................................................................................................................... 30 Illinois ....................................................................................................................................... 33 Peoria .................................................................................................................................... 34 Sherman ii Joliet ...................................................................................................................................... 35 Chicago ................................................................................................................................. 38 Missouri .................................................................................................................................... 41 St. Louis ................................................................................................................................ 43 Springfield............................................................................................................................. 45 Kansas City ........................................................................................................................... 47 Massachusetts ........................................................................................................................... 48 Boston ................................................................................................................................... 49 Maryland ................................................................................................................................... 52 Baltimore............................................................................................................................... 54 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................... 56 Scope ......................................................................................................................................... 57 Methods..................................................................................................................................... 59 Final Remarks ........................................................................................................................... 61 Appendix: Case Study Tables (State t-tests) ................................................................................. 63 Alabama .................................................................................................................................... 63 Arizona ...................................................................................................................................... 63 Arkansas .................................................................................................................................... 64 California .................................................................................................................................. 64 Colorado .................................................................................................................................... 65 Sherman iii Connecticut ............................................................................................................................... 65 Delaware ................................................................................................................................... 66 District of Columbia ................................................................................................................. 66 Florida ....................................................................................................................................... 67 Georgia ...................................................................................................................................... 67 Illinois ....................................................................................................................................... 68 Indiana....................................................................................................................................... 68 Iowa........................................................................................................................................... 69 Kansas ....................................................................................................................................... 69 Kentucky ................................................................................................................................... 70 Louisiana ................................................................................................................................... 70 Maine ........................................................................................................................................ 71 Maryland ................................................................................................................................... 71 Massachusetts ........................................................................................................................... 72 Michigan ................................................................................................................................... 72 Minnesota .................................................................................................................................