Region has 6,000+ with no car, no transit access
The greater Baltimore region has more than 6,000 household that lack either a car or access to mass transit services, according to a report released Thursday by the Brookings Institution.
That number is overshadowed by the more than 114,000 regional households that own no vehicles but do have access to transit. That puts the region at 94.6 percent coverage for zero-vehicle households -- coming in 20th out of 100 metropolitan areas around the country.
The Baltimore numbers do show a significant gap between the city and the suburbs in transit access for such households, most with low family incomes. While the city has 100 percent transit coverage, according to Brookings, 85.1 percent of no-vehicle households in the suburbs have such access.
When it comes to providing no-vehicle households with access to jobs, the region doesn't fare as well. The report days Baltimore provides 42 percent of no-vehicle households with access to jobs -- ranking 32nd out of 100. Of those households, 50.3 percent are in the city and 23.7 percent in the suburbs.
Nationally, the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program found that 7.5 million household in the 100 largest metro areas have no access to a private car. Of those, it found, 700,000 have no access to public transit.
The report, based on U.S. Census American Community Survey data, found that a disproportionate number of those no-car, no-transit households are in the suburbs and in the South.
Those with access to neither face increasing challenges in getting to work, the report said. It noted that employment has become increasing dispersed over the past three decades as the nation has added more than 655,000 new roadway lane-miles since 1980.
The metropolitan area with the best transit access was Honolulu, followed by Los Angeles, New York, San Jose and San Francisco. At the bottom was Greenville, S.C., where only 45.9 percent of the no-car households had transit access.
Categories: Baltimore Metro, City bus service, Light rail, Local bus lines, MTA, MTA bus system, On the roads
Comments
How are people "without access to public transportation" in Baltimore City? Is there a point in the city without handful of bus routes within a 4-6 block walk?
Posted by: Chris Bingel | August 18, 2011 12:40 PM
The problem, according to the article, isn't in the city.
"While the city has 100 percent transit coverage, according to Brookings, 85.1 percent of no-vehicle households in the suburbs have such access."
Posted by: Warren Jones | August 18, 2011 1:56 PM
@Chris - and supplementing Warren's comment - even if the problem is "in the suburbs check out the MTA coverage in the NE of Baltimore - almost a 1/5 of the city is lies more than a MILE from any public transit bus line.
http://mta.maryland.gov/sites/default/files/DowntownBaltimoreMap-120109.pdf
Secondly, it's fine to live near a bus /subway line and call it "access" - problem is, and especially true in Baltimore people would agree, is that the QUALITY of service (its predictability, punctuality and so on) doesn't make it worth taking. Take, for instance, the debacle that is the MARC train. Is that reliable public transit? Hardly? You could live under homeplate in Camden yards and have "access" but if the train doesn't run it's a pretty moot point.
Posted by: baltobikeboi | August 26, 2011 12:21 PM