Transportation Spending by Low-Income California Households ...

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low-income households, they do not focus on the extent to which monetary costs play a role. In contrast, many current or proposed policies focus on the perceived need to make transportation more affordable. Welfare agencies in California and throughout the country regularly provide transportation vouchers for public transit or for vehicle operating expenses. Other policies include a loan program in San Mateo County that helps low-income residents pay for large, infrequent transportation costs (such as automobile purchase or repair) and a now-discontinued pilot bus-pass program in Alameda County for low-income students. As transportation and social service agencies have tackled the transportation problems of low-income groups, the need for more information on transportation costs and how they affect low-income households has become increasingly apparent. In fact, very little research has focused on this issue directly. 10 This report looks at transportation costs and expenditures in great detail, focusing particularly on California and the nine Bay Area counties under MTC’s purview. Structure of the Report The report proceeds as follows. Part I contains all of the data analysis. Chapter 2 provides information on the data and methods used in the analysis. Chapter 3 uses data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey to examine transportation expenditures made by California households. Chapter 4 provides cost estimates for example commutes within the Bay Area, by public and private transportation. Chapter 5 looks at underlying differences in commute behavior (such as mode choice and time of day) that help determine how monetary costs, time costs, and mobility vary between income groups. Chapter 6 draws conclusions from the data analyses performed in Chapters 3 through 5. Part II of the report responds to a request by MTC to develop a menu of policy strategies and to identify priorities for future research. Chapter 7 _____________ 10 These include the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (2003), Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) (2003), and Blumenberg (2003). Polzin (2003) also addresses the issue of transportation costs, but does not focus on low-income households in particular. A sensitivity analysis in Appendix C of this report compares our results to methods used in some of these other documents. 4
lays out policy options for addressing affordability issues and discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches. Because the strategy menu does not rest on the data analysis, the report does not make specific policy recommendations. Chapter 8 describes promising areas for further research on transportation affordability in the Bay Area. Appendix A provides information on methods that cuts across the four datasets used in this report. Appendix B presents information specific to each dataset. Appendix C performs a sensitivity analysis for our key transportation expenditure results from Chapter 3. Finally, Appendix D explains the methods used for the example commute analysis. 5
Page 1 and 2: Transportation Spending by Low-Inco
Page 3 and 4: Foreword Mismatches between jobs an
Page 5 and 6: Summary Transportation is an import
Page 7 and 8: Table S.1 Median Annual Transportat
Page 9 and 10: about 5 to 10 percent of the median
Page 11: providing discounted transit fares
Page 14 and 15: 5. COMMUTE BEHAVIOR IN THE BAY AREA
Page 17: Figures S.1. Vehicle Ownership and
Page 20 and 21: 4.3. Costs of Illustrative Within-C
Page 23 and 24: 1. Introduction Costs associated wi
Page 25: of “welfare-to-work” transporta
Page 31 and 32: 2. Data and Methods In this report,
Page 33 and 34: advantage to this approach is that
Page 35 and 36: 3. Transportation Expenditures in M
Page 37 and 38: Table 3.2 Vehicle Use, Vehicle Owne
Page 39 and 40: Components of Vehicle-Related Expen
Page 41 and 42: inspection, and auto club membershi
Page 43 and 44: income households and the higher-in
Page 45 and 46: eport looks primarily at cost and n
Page 47 and 48: The results from Table 3.5 indicate
Page 49 and 50: variation in transportation costs w
Page 51 and 52: overall household expenditures for
Page 53 and 54: 31 Table 3.9 Transportation Expendi
Page 55 and 56: Table 3.10 Comparison of California
Page 57 and 58: Table 3.11 Comparison of the San Fr
Page 59 and 60: Table 3.10 have lower expenditure f
Page 61 and 62: 4. Costs of Illustrative Bay Area C
Page 63 and 64: 0-300 301-600 601-1100 1101-6813 Ba
Page 65 and 66: Table 4.2 Place of Work Comparison
Page 67 and 68: Concord CONTRA COSTA SAN FRANCISCO
Page 69 and 70: Administration (FHWA) mileage rate
Page 71 and 72: 49 Table 4.3 Costs of Illustrative
Page 73 and 74: participants who took transit or ca
Page 75 and 76: Table 4.4 Costs of Illustrative Wit
Page 77 and 78:
55 Table 4.5 Costs of Illustrative
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57 Table 4.6 Costs of Illustrative
Page 81 and 82:
commutes is $4,240, whereas the hig
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The results from this chapter seem
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5. Commute Behavior in the Bay Area
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We also looked at mode choice using
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longer for higher-income workers if
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Table 5.3 (continued) Low- Income H
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Table 5.5 depicts the share of the
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73 Table 5.6 Mode Choice and Vehicl
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75 Table 5.8 Mode Choice and Vehicl
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households report having access to
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Table 5.9 (continued) % Using Each
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• Marin to San Francisco: As with
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Table 5.10 Median Commute Durations
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85 Table 5.11 Differences in Mode C
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Table 5.13 Mode Choice, Work Schedu
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trips, make more household-supporti
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only expenditures. Paying a given n
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improving service quality rather th
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Part II Policy Strategies and Areas
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potential social costs such as poll
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• Increasing income directly, to
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grants for developments that meet c
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make it easier for various entities
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pass.” 10 Perhaps discounts could
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free transit is most likely not app
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have fares based on the time of day
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hours for late night and graveyard
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credit ratings, assisting with insu
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would have paid with traditional au
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citizens. Rather, the question shou
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Facilitating Bicycling or Walking A
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transportation hubs may be another
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allowing flexibility at the local l
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services, health care, drug treatme
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costs. Efforts to incorporate infor
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are differences) and by looking at
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Dataset Poor Low-Income Higher-Inco
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income, problems common to most hou
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or the Bay Area specifically. We us
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Appendix B Information on Specific
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We also excluded expenditures on bi
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Atlanta: Atlanta, GA MSA Miami: Mia
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147 Table B.1 (continued) CES Metro
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Appendix C Sensitivity Analysis for
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151 Table C.1 (continued) Poor Low-
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transportation expenditures constit
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Appendix D Methods Used for the Exa
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Bibliography American Automobile As
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Implications of Welfare Reform for
Page 183 and 184:
Lucas, M., and C. Nicholson, “Sub
Page 185 and 186:
Progressive Casualty Insurance Comp
Page 187:
About the Author LORIEN RICE Lorien
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Transportation Spending by Low-Income California Households ...

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