Diesel Truck Traffic in Low-Income and Minority Communities Adjacent to Ports

Abstract

Container traffic at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, has tripled in the past 15 years, resulting in massive port-related heavy-duty diesel truck (HDDT) traffic on surface streets in the low-income and minority communities of Wilmington and western Long Beach adjacent to the ports. In response to the limitations of existing data on the volumes of HDDTs on surface streets, this study used direct video measurements of surface street traffic at 11 intersections and line segments in these communities to document port-related truck traffic traveling to and from inter-modal facilities, truck service sites, local amenities. and regional goods movement roadways. The volumes of HDDTs often reached 400 to 600/h for several hours immediately upwind of sensitive land uses, such as schools, open-field parks, and residences. Diurnal truck traffic patterns on surface streets varied by intersection, local conditions, and passenger car commute patterns. Given the documented health and environmental consequences of HDDT emissions, the results raise serious public health concerns for the inhabitants who reside, work, attend school, or recreate in close proximity to roadways with HDDT traffic in these communities adjacent to ports. This paper discusses the environmental justice implications of truck-related land use conflicts and current planning and emission control strategies to mitigate the local air pollution impacts of increasing port-related truck traffic in these low-income, minority communities.

Healthy Neighborhoods: Walkability and Air Pollution

“…Our finding that income is correlated with O 3 concentrations but is inversely correlated with primary pollutant (NO) concentrations is consistent with similar findings in Southern California (Marshall 2008; Marshall et al 2006; Morello-Frosch et al 2001, 2002). Our results add to the literature on environmental justice aspects of air pollution (Brulle and Pellow 2006; O’Neill et al 2003), including on exposure to traffic-related pollution (Buzzelli and Jerrett 2007; Havard et al 2009; Houston et al 2008; Kingham et al 2007). Results in North America suggest that for NO and other primary pollutants, low-income and nonwhite populations face a disproportionate share of the burden of urban air pollution.…”

Disparities in Exposure to Automobile and Truck Traffic and Vehicle Emissions Near the Los Angeles–Long Beach Port Complex

“…9,10 Environmental justice concerns are heightened in goods movement corridors in which substantial volumes of heavy-duty diesel trucks (HDDTs) transport shipping containers on arterials near residences and sensitive land uses through lower socioeconomic status communities. 11,12 Significant questions remain, however, regarding the existence and magnitude of raceand income-based disparities in traffic and air pollution exposure. 13---16 Some studies have found little association between air pollution exposure and socioeconomic status after controlling for confounding factors 17 ; others found greater air pollution and traffic exposure for higher socioeconomic groups.…”

“…12,27,28 We have contributed to the environmental justice literature by examining exposures at the parcel property assessment level to determine impacts at a finer spatial resolution, 29 by using spatial regression techniques to account for spatial dependence of data when assessing disparities, 30---33 and by using 3 parcel-level metrics of exposure that could have different spatial distributions and population impacts: total nearby vehicle miles traveled (VMT), nearby truck VMT, and the modeled concentrations of emissions from vehicles on neighborhood roadways. We hypothesized that the first 2 traffic exposure measures would provide a distance-based assessment of near-roadway exposure to traffic-related noise and air pollution and that the third would account for the air pollution "plume" after accounting for the geographic and temporal variation in traffic, wind, and other meteorological patterns.…”

When Environmental Inequality Racialized: Historical Evidence from Providence, Rhode Island

“…Since the late 1980s, quantitative research conducted in the United States has demonstrated consistent relationships between low-income, indigenous, immigrant, and minority communities and disproportionate environmental risks and health impacts associated with industrial production, waste disposal, and hazardous facility siting (Banzhaf et al 2019; Mohai and Saha 2015a; Shao et al 2022). For example, marginalized communities experience higher exposure to air pollution (Houston, Krudysz, and Winer 2008; Lopez 2002; Rubio, Grineski, and Collins 2021), industrial hazards (Crowder and Downey 2010), and toxic waste facilities (Boer et al 1997; Mohai and Saha 2006). Inequalities in exposure to environmental hazards in turn magnify inequalities in various social and health outcomes, from asthma (Grineski 2007), psychological stress (Gee and Payne-Sturges 2004), and cognitive function (Muller et al 2018) to school attendance (Berman et al 2018) and long-term economic well-being (Isen, Rossin-Slater, and Walker 2017), and compound structural vulnerability as well (Liévanos 2019).…”