Abstract
Access to quality public transportation is critical for employment, especially for low-income and minority populations. This study contributes to previous work on equity analyses of the U.S. public transportation system by including the 45 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in a single analysis. Year-2014 Census demographic data were combined with an existing 2014 dataset of transit job accessibility. Then, transit equality and justice indicators were developed and a regression analysis was performed to explore trends in transit job accessibility by race and income. The findings suggest that within individual MSAs, low-income populations and minorities have the highest transit job accessibility. However, the overall transit ridership is low, and in certain MSAs with high transit job accessibility both high and low income populations have high access levels but middle income populations do not. Within individual MSAs, on average, accessibility differences by income are greater than accessibility differences by race. The relative importance of race versus income for injustice increases with MSA size. In upper mid-size and large MSAs, differences by race increase. Also, the differences by race are greater among low-income populations. Accessibility-related equality and justice indicators are only one of many issues that comprise the wider discussion of equity.
Highlights
JOURNAL OF TRANSPORT AND LAND USE 11.1To provide the public with high levels of mobility, planners of the early twentieth century focused on increasing the speed of travel through private automobile ownership
low-income nonWhites (LINW) is more than high-income Whites (HIW) among Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs)
Among all MSAs, Louisville, Cincinnati, Nashville, Minneapolis, and Baltimore have the highest level of LINW as compared to HIW
Summary
To provide the public with high levels of mobility, planners of the early twentieth century focused on increasing the speed of travel through private automobile ownership. Investment in roads has been unable to keep pace with growth in vehicle travel, environmental consequences have made the goal less achievable (Handy, 2002), and funding for aging road infrastructure has been insufficient for maintenance (ASCE, 2017). Automobiles are expensive for low-income populations (Shen, 1998) limiting the social and economic participation of people without a private vehicle. Improving accessibility is an increasingly important indicator and a common goal in many transportation plans in U.S cities (El-Geneidy & Levinson, 2006; USDOT, 2012; USDOT Office of the Secretary, 2012). Public transport may play a key role in improving accessibility for populations that cannot afford private vehicles
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