Transportation Spending by Low-Income California Households ...

6. Conclusions from the Data
Analysis
This report addresses a lack of research on the topic of transportation
costs for low-income households. Drawing on several existing datasets, it
examines transportation expenditures for California households,
estimates costs for specific example commutes within the Bay Area, and
investigates travel behaviors in the Bay Area and how they may relate to
transportation costs.
The expenditure data demonstrate that transportation is an
important budget component for low-income households—the thirdlargest
spending category after housing and food. Median transportation
expenditures for low-income households in California amount to $2,164
annually, or 13 percent of the household budget. However, compared to
higher-income households, low-income households’ transportation
spending represents a slightly smaller percentage of total household
expenditures. At the median, higher-income households spend $6,569
annually on transportation, or 15 percent of total household
expenditures.
For several reasons, these findings cannot be interpreted as a signal
that transportation is more affordable for lower-income households than
for higher-income households. First, expenditures should not be
confused with costs. A household may have low expenditures on certain
budget items precisely because the cost of the item is so high that the
household cannot afford to buy more of it. Second, low-income
households have less left over for transportation after paying 63 percent
of their budget toward food and housing, whereas higher-income
households pay only 51 percent of their budget toward these two priority
budget items, leaving higher-income households with more available in
their budget to pay for transportation. Third, when discussing
affordability, one should assess the quality of the service received and not
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