# Equity in Transportation Asset Management: A Proposed Framework
## 1 Introduction
[PERSON] and [PERSON] [33] also developed a framework based on the analytic network process (ANP) method for prioritizing pavement maintenance and rehabilitation projects considering social and economic factors, in Sri Lanka. The key factors in this research for equity evaluation were road user satisfaction, social equity, economic growth, environmental sustainability, road safety, technical feasibility, and project cost. Pairwise comparison interviews were conducted with nine transportation experts, and the obtained weights were converted into a matrix to obtain priorities. Traditional approaches to incorporating equity often struggle to account for the inherent uncertainties in transportation planning. These uncertainties can stem from factors like population growth, traffic patterns, and economic fluctuations. As a result, achieving a truly balanced distribution of benefits across network users can be challenging. In 2017, [PERSON] et al. [34] proposed a novel approach to address this limitation. They advocate for a paradigm shift towards incorporating flexible equity constraints represented by fuzzy sets. Fuzzy sets acknowledge and quantify these uncertainties, allowing for a more nuanced consideration of equity in decision-making. By introducing fuzzy programming, they achieved a more balanced distribution of benefits across network users, addressing both horizontal and vertical equity concerns. Recent advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques present significant opportunities for optimizing decision-making processes in transportation asset management. Potential methods for optimization in this context include machine learning classifiers such as artificial neural networks (ANNs), random forest classifiers, and support vector machine (SVM) models. These models can address key optimization issues such as network capacity by enabling dynamic resource allocation, sample complexity by requiringfewer labeled data for training, and computational complexity through efficient learning algorithms. Additionally, genetic algorithms, integer linear programming (ILP), and the analytic network process (ANP) have been successfully applied in previous studies for similar optimization problems, highlighting their potential applicability in this framework [35]. When it comes to incorporating equity into transportation and infrastructure systems, it goes beyond just research. The FHWA developed PlanWorks as a tool to facilitate collaborative decision-making during transportation planning and project development [36]. PlanWorks provides guidance on how and when to involve cross-disciplinary partners and stakeholder groups, encouraging transportation professionals to consider environmental equity throughout the entire planning and project development process. While the FHWA has made commendable efforts to incorporate environmental justice (EJ) considerations into transportation planning, there is a need to explore how EJ can be integrated with other equity aspects in transportation planning. The United States Department of Transportation (US DOT) has also taken a significant step towards prioritizing equity as a core strategic goal. The aim is to promote equity across the department's policies and programs, with the ultimate goal of reducing transportation-related inequities within the communities they serve [37]. In another practice, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted research to investigate uneven National Highway System (NHS) pavement conditions in communities with different characteristics. The findings indicate that 3.7 percent of the pavement in census tracts with higher underserved racial and ethnic populations is in poor condition, whereas only 1.3 percent of the pavement in census tracts with lower underserved racial and ethnic populations is in poor condition. Additionally, the investigation found a significant association between the prevalence of family poverty in a census tract and the condition of the National Highway System pavement in that area.