Guidelines for assessing the community impact of transportation facilities have identified several attributes of community character and structure that can be directly measured [Kaplan et al., 1972; Manheim et al., 1975; U.S. DOT, 1979a; Burdge, 1987; U.S. DOT, 1996]. More sophisticated and robust models and data bases developed over the past 15 years have provided planners with a strong foun dation for analyzing community impacts. For example, geographic information sys tems (GISs) can be a powerful tool for assessing the impacts of transportation investment on different population groups and on different geographic areas. It seems likely that a detailed assessment of social impacts and of the actions needed to mitigate negative effects will become an ever more important effort in the plan ning process in future years.