Suburban Poverty, Public Transit, Economic Opportunities and Social Mobility

Recent demographic trends suggest an increasing suburbanization of poor populations. Given that poor households are often unable to afford increasing housing prices in many urban areas they are increasingly moving to the suburbs. At the same time, suburbs often do not support the public transit needs of poor populations and access to jobs. Insufficient transit can also exacerbate recovery times after extreme weather events for vulnerable populations. The research has two main goals. The first goal is to identify a number of metropolitan areas in University Transportation Research Center (UTRC) Region II where demographic trends of increasing suburbanization of the poor are taking place and to use them to assess whether current transportation supply is likely to meet the needs of these communities for transit service demand. The second goal addresses risks that vulnerable communities face during extreme weather events due to lack of access to transportation for evacuation or for emergency preparedness and the ability to regain access to jobs. The research will also identify opportunities to diversify public transit alternatives to improve access to the service and meet other public policy goals such as reducing the vulnerability of transit systems to extreme weather events and climate change. This work contributes to two UTRC Research Focus Areas: # 7: livable and sustainable communities and # 8: planning for and response to extreme events.

• Record URL:
  http://www.utrc2.org/research/projects/public-transit-economic-opportunities

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $86136.00
• Contract Numbers:

  49997-25-25

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Research and Innovative Technology Administration

  University Transportation Centers Program
  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  University Transportation Research Center

  City College of New York
  Marshak Hall, Suite 910, 160 Convent Avenue
  New York, NY  United States  10031
• Project Managers:

  Eickemeyer, Penny

• Performing Organizations:

  New York University

  Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management
  Wagner School, 295 Lafayette Street
  New York, NY  United States  10012-9604
• Principal Investigators:

  Zimmerman, Rae

• Start Date: 20140301
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 20151231
• Source Data: RiP Project 36161

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accessibility; Climate change; Demographics; Jobs; Low income groups; Mobility; Public transit; Suburbs; Weather conditions
• Uncontrolled Terms: Extreme events
• Subject Areas: Economics; Public Transportation; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01569301
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: University Transportation Research Center
• Contract Numbers: 49997-25-25
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Jul 9 2015 1:00AM