Abstract
Historically, disadvantaged communities have been disproportionately affected by highway planning and freeway siting, particularly in California.
This is an interactive storymap of communities impacted by highway planning in California.
blog
Historically, disadvantaged communities have been disproportionately affected by highway planning and freeway siting, particularly in California.
This is an interactive storymap of communities impacted by highway planning in California.
policy brief
presentation
op-ed
published journal article
The relationship between housing and transportation costs has been the focus of much research, with classic urban theory positing that housing costs decrease and commuting costs increase as households move away from city centers. The growing population of low and low-moderate (LMI) households in suburbs may be taking advantage of lower housing costs, though research shows that housing cost savings in suburbs are offset by higher transportation costs. Our research explores dimensions of housing and transportation cost burden on LMI households in Contra Costa County in the San Francisco Bay Area using qualitative data from online/in-person surveys (n = 208) and interviews conducted in English and Spanish (n = 25).
We found that the housing burden is high, suggesting that LMI households choose to live in the suburbs for diverse reasons, including rising rents and other requirements (e.g., credit score, rental history) in core cities, and desire for home ownership and a safer environment for children. Yet LMI suburban residents are still vulnerable to rising rents and housing instability in suburban areas. In addition to high housing costs, transportation costs are higher in suburbs due to longer commutes and higher reliance on personal vehicles. Car access is necessary, especially for households with young children. Reliance on cars becomes an issue as LMI households often encounter maintenance issues with used cars or the inability to make car payments. When faced with a lack of car ownership, households rely on social networks or public transit, and in some cases, forgo trips or relinquish their vehicles entirely. The lack of quality transportation alternatives in suburban contexts, as existing public transit services, have long headways and are not well-suited to serving off-peak trips between suburban areas, leaves LMI households vulnerable.
research report
This project uses mixed methods to examine the systemic causes and consequences of the construction of Stockton, California’s Crosstown Freeway, and urban redevelopment for Asian American communities. Stockton underwent spatial restructuring in the decades after the Second World War, and state and local governments contributed and responded to these changes by implementing connected freeway and urban renewal programs. Historical and contemporaneous xenophobia and racism placed Chinatown, Japantown, and Little Manila in their path, with these enclaves deemed blighted and subject to “slum clearance.” The choice of freeway route was racially biased. The neighborhood surrounding an unchosen route was predominantly white, whereas that of the chosen route was predominantly home to people of color. Freeway construction during the 1960s and 1970s directly displaced hundreds of people and housing units downtown— mainly people of color, particularly Asians. The communities most harmed were the Asian American enclaves, where the housing stock declined by about three-quarters between 1960 and 1970. The losses were not only physical, as the freeway and redevelopment eviscerated once vibrant ethnic commercial hubs. Because of long-standing economic and political marginalization, Asian Americans were relatively powerless to prevent the destruction; nonetheless, they fought to build affordable housing for their people, protect and in some cases relocate cultural institutions, and support surviving ethnic businesses. In the long run, Stockton failed to revitalize its downtown, while destroying its cultural diversity. The findings can help reform and improve professional practice within the transportation arena to ensure racial fairness and equity.
published journal article
In recent decades, homelessness has become an increasingly major challenge in the U.S., reaching about half a million unhoused people. Many of them seek shelter in settings such as freeways, underpasses, and rest areas. State departments of transportation (DOTs) are responsible for the health and safety of these settings and their occupants, housed and unhoused. This study synthesizes existing literature and findings from interviews with staff from 13 state DOTs and eight service providers and organizations responding to homelessness. Homelessness represents a recognized and common challenge for DOTs, which face jurisdictional, financial, and legal hurdles in addressing it. DOT staff employ both “push” and “pull” strategies, the most common of which is encampment removals (“sweeps”). However, the effectiveness of such removals is limited, as encampments often reappear in nearby sites. Other strategies include “defensive design” and, more proactively, establishing or partnering with low-barrier shelters, providing shelters and sanitation on DOT land, and coordinating rehousing and outreach efforts. Our findings suggest that DOTs should acquire better data on homelessness on their lands, create a homelessness coordinating office, establish formal partnerships with nonprofits/service providers, and evaluate the necessity of encampment removals, through the development and utilization of prioritization criteria.
published journal article
The COVID-19 pandemic occasioned significant financial distress and uncertainty for many U.S. transit operators. In the face of this crisis, the federal government provided substantial supplemental operating support. To understand how this fiscal turmoil and relief have affected U.S. transit systems, we conducted two nationwide surveys of transit agency staff in 2020 and 2021-2022. While pandemic-induced financial shortfalls affected service in 2020, with capital projects delayed too, these effects became much more muted by 2021/2022. Most systems reported moderate to substantial increases in federal funding during the pandemic, more so than other funding categories. However, nearly half foresee financial shortfalls once federal relief funding expires. Agencies with higher pre-pandemic ridership and farebox recovery are particularly affected by fare revenue losses and are more likely to anticipate shortfalls. In the near term, difficulty hiring and retaining front-line workers was a pressing concern, while very few had plans to maintain pandemic fare suspensions.
blog
published journal article
Subsidies of public transit have more than doubled since the late 1980s, with a disproportionate share of funds going to rail services. These investments have important implications, including how they affect both the composition of transit users and their travel behavior. To investigate how transit users and use are changing, we use Latent Profile Analysis and data from the 2009 and 2017 National Household Travel Surveys to examine changes in transit users in the U.S. and in five major metropolitan areas. Nationwide, we find that the share of Transit Dependents grew by 17% to account for two-thirds of all transit users in 2017. These least advantaged riders were more likely over time to reside in very poor households and to be carless. There was a corresponding decline in Occasional Transit Users, for whom transit is part of a multi-modal travel profile. Higher-income, mostly car-owning Choice Transit Riders increased slightly over time but accounted for less than one in ten transit riders in 2017. Their growth was concentrated in a few large metropolitan areas where densities and land use are most transit-supportive. While increased rail transit service has shifted riders away from buses, transit’s role as a redistributive social service that provides mobility to disadvantaged travelers has grown over time. Efforts to draw more multi-modal and car-owning travelers onto transit have been less successful. As transit systems struggle to recover riders following the pandemic, transit’s waxing role of providing mobility for those without will likely become even more prominent.