Resource Pages

Jun 7, 2011

How mass transit fails low income workers

HuffingtonPost - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Hobo4_edited-1.jpgA report from the Brookings Institute, Employment decentralization is increasing, and many new jobs -- whether in retail, health care, educational services or manufacturing -- are located in suburban and even further-flung exurban neighborhoods, according to the report. The task of getting to newly-created jobs has grown more difficult for low income, public transportation-dependent workers.

Most metro-area residents can only get to about 30 percent of jobs within 90 minutes using public transit, the report found.
And it's even worse for those seeking low- and middle-skill jobs, as only about 25 percent of those jobs can be reached within that same timeframe using public transit.

Low-income suburbanites, a large and growing group, face trouble, too.
Because of limited transit networks in most suburbs, these workers can only access 22 percent of low- and middle-skill jobs, according to the
report.