For decades, infrastructure projects in Richmond have prioritized cars over other forms of transportation. Monday night, City Council approved guidelines intended to change that.

The Path to Equity policy guide, proposed by Mayor Levar Stoney and approved by all present council members, won’t change anything overnight. Instead, it directs the city to prioritize projects that promote biking, walking and taking the bus as it maps out a multimodal transportation network for the next 30 years.

Kelli Rowan, with the city’s Office of Equitable Transit and Mobility, said at a committee meeting last week that the guide will help answer a number of questions: “What transportation assets do we have? Where are the gaps? What people are we serving? What people aren’t we serving?”

The plan begins by tracing the history of Richmond infrastructure harming low-income and Black residents.