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Loading...America’s Public Transportation Systems Struggle To Connect Workers To Jobs
Written by Travis Waldron
Most workers face long, troublesome commutes if they try to use public transportation to access jobs, even though most jobs are technically accessible by public transportation, according to a new study from the Brookings Institution.
Nearly three-quarters of American jobs are near public transportation, but thanks to suburbanization of both jobs and households, barely a quarter of Americans can access those jobs in less than 90 minutes via public transportation, the report found:
The typical job is accessible to only about 27 percent of its metropolitan workforce by transit in 90 minutes or less. Labor access varies considerably from a high of 64 percent in metropolitan Salt Lake City to a low of 6 percent in metropolitan Palm Bay, refl ecting differences in both transit provision, job concentration, and land use patterns. City jobs are consistently accessible to larger shares of metropolitan labor pools than suburban jobs, reinforcing cities’ geographic advantage relative to transit routing.
Access to both transit and a job might not be a big deal to the average car-owning American worker. For poorer Americans, though, the struggle to use public transportation to get to work restricts which jobs they can take. “The costs of owning and operating a vehicle are such that ten percent of American households in the nation’s largest metro areas do not have access to a private vehicle,” the report states. “Compared to their car-owning counterparts, zero-vehicle households are more likely to earn low incomes, live in cities, and take public transportation to work.”
The report also found that reliance on automobiles to commute to work has important consequences for both commuters and businesses. The average commute has jumped by 3.5 miles in the last 30 years, from 9.9 miles in 1983 to 13.3 miles today. A steady rise in gas prices means a longer commute costs drivers money, and businesses lose money too, thanks to reduced productivity and the necessity of increased wages to compensate for commuter costs.
“Improving metro areas’ transit access could be as simple as running more buses and trains,” the report says. “Yet a serious public funding crisis limits agencies’ ability to expand their service and enhance connections between jobs and households Instead, revenue declines are widespread and many agencies are already planning fare increases and operating cuts to close yawning budget gaps. … It becomes critical then for the nation to focus on smart transit investments, specifically those that coordinate with other transportation and land use decisions.”
This post was originally published by ThinkProgress.
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Read more: commuting, public transit, public transportation, Suburbs
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23 comments
+ add your ownPublic transportation? The US has public transportation? Not very many places ... and efforts to build additional trains, subways, etc. have been scuttled in many areas by legislatures afraid of being saddled with long-term operational and maintenance costs.
One local warehouse needing low-wage workers in an inaccessible by transit location nearby solved its problem by providing a commuter bus system to get its workers to and from the job.
It is to dangerous for women to use public transportation.
We need more public transit, and facilities for walking and cycling. The world needs a more environmentally sustainable future.
could be worse...
Wish we had better public transportation here.
I love public transportation. I prefer it to using a private automobile. I hope that it becomes easily available for all.
Now we all know, the only people who matter are the ones with cars.
(Just wait til people are trying to get to the London Olympics or just get on with their daily lives.)
We don't even have public transportation where I live..........would be nice to able to get some place without using individual cars! (Even takes up to an house to get a cab!)
The EU, Japan and even China can show the way... have to have some public will.
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