01594838

Component

Improving job access continues to be an important priority for transportation planners, but is this goal better served by investing public transportation or increasing access to vehicles? And if cars improve economic outcomes, do the increased earnings from access to cars outweigh the monetary costs of car ownership? The authors use eight waves of panel data from 1999 through 2013 from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to assess how transit accessibility and car ownership shape future employment outcomes and earnings. The authors find that improving automobile access decreases the likelihood of future unemployment and increases future earnings. However, the analysis suggests that the costs of owning and maintaining a car may be greater than the income gains associated with increased car ownership. The relationship between public transit and improved economic outcomes is less clear. The authors find that living in areas with access to high-quality public transportation has no effect on future earnings but, unexpectedly, increases the likelihood of being unemployed in the next survey wave. The authors suspect that transit accessibility is a proxy for other aspects of the neighborhood or residents that cannot be included in this model.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADD20 Standing Committee on Social and Economic Factors of Transportation.

01584066

16-2982

English

18p

2016

Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting

Web

Figures; References (30) ; Tables

Accessibility; Automobile ownership; Economic impacts; Employment; Public transit

Economics; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2016 Paper #16-2982

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 12 2016 5:20PM