#607 Online: Counting Trucks for Environmental Justice: Data from the Ground Up

Hear Little Village Environmental Justice Organization & Center for Neighborhood Technology discuss their innovative Chicago Truck Data Portal (https://chicagotruckcounts.cnt.org/). This portal is an open-source webpage showcasing over 30 Average Daily Traffic (ADT) counts for trucks and buses throughout Chicagoland. The research team mainly deployed traffic counting cameras in Chicago’s southwest and southeast sides– environmental justice neighborhoods with majority people of color, immigrant residents, an industrial workforce, and in the city’s largest industrial corridors with multi-source environmental pollution.

The presenters will explore the urgent environmental and public health concerns that inspired this innovative project, and how the Chicago Truck Data Portal emerged from grassroots community science efforts in Little Village. By connecting quantitative data with the lived experiences of residents, this portal serves as a vital tool for empowering local communities. They will highlight how the traffic data— for example, showing over 5,000 trucks and buses passing through an environmental justice neighborhood daily— has fueled community-driven advocacy, informing federal policy proposals, and amplifying voices in long-overlooked areas. Through compelling data visualizations, the project reveals the stark disparities in truck traffic burdens between these neighborhoods and more affluent areas, shedding light on environmental injustice. The presentation will also provide insight into the rigorous methodology and data collection practices that underpin this transformative tool.

Chicago Truck Data Portal is featured in Chicago Tribune, Block Club Chicago, The U’s On The Block, NPR’s WBEZ Chicago, Grist, Energy News Network, Next City, and more.

ASL This event will not have an American Sign Language interpreter.