- Americans spend about 18 cents out of every dollar earned on transportation expenses. Americans spend more on transportation than they do on food, education, and health care. Public transit riders spend on or about $1,400 in gas per year.
- The nation’s poorest families spend more than 40 percent of their take home pay on transportation. The working poor spend a much higher portion of their income on commuting. Improving public transportation in urban centers could lower costs and raise living standards for low-income households. Americans who live in areas served by public transportation save more than $13 billion in congestion costs annually.
- About 70 percent of jobs in the 100 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas are not within a 90-minute, one-way transit trip; and more than 700,000 households in the 100 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas that lack access to a vehicle also have no public transportation service available.
- Transportation-related sources account for over 30 percent of the primary smog-forming pollutants emitted nationwide and 28 percent of the fine particulates. Emissions from cars, trucks, and buses cause 25-51 percent of the air pollution in the nation’s nonattainment areas.
- Advances in technology used for collecting fares provides new opportunities for creating a more stable own-source funding stream for transit agencies while also expanding access for low-income riders. The key is to segment the market so that higher income riders are charged at rates closer to their willingness to pay for the actual cost of the transit service. It is imperative that this service is provided at the time that it is most needed provided. This is the concept of variable pricing that is increasingly a fundamental component of other transportation innovations such as Managed Lanes, HOT Lanes, and congestion pricing.
- Social media should leverage the creativity of the public (i.e. based on youth internet and mobile communications activities) while increasing their level of interest and participation, and reducing their level of dissatisfaction with government services. Social media has played a significant role in electoral politics and campaigning. It also creates the capacity for far-reaching, real-time organizing and mobilization. Supporters are kept up to date on gatherings (physical or virtual), fundraising activities, canvassing, and general communications. Grassroots-initiated organizing and public protests are witnessing a sea of change in speed and global outreach, as evidenced by responses in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, during the so-called Arab Spring.
Transportation plays a pivotal role in shaping human interaction, economic mobility, and sustainability. Transportation also provides access to opportunity and serves as a key component in addressing poverty, unemployment, and equal opportunity goals while ensuring access to education, health care, and other public services. Here are some pros and cons relating to transportation equity:
- Cuts in public transit have a negative ripple effect in communities where the majority is people of color; since they are less likely to own cars. Hence, they face higher than average unemployment, poverty, and economic hard times. Cutting transit service and raising fares as a means to positively impact the emissions problem will only exacerbate social inequality.