Abstract

In this paper, we examine social and economic trends in California’s transit-friendly neighborhoods since 2000. In particular, we explore the relationship between high-propensity transit users – who we define here as members of households classified as poor, immigrant, African-American, and without private vehicles – and high-transit-propensity places – which are neighborhoods that regularly host high levels of transit service or use. As housing costs have increased dramatically in California and neighborhoods change, many planners and transit advocates reasonably worry that in transit-friendly neighborhoods, lower-propensity transit users may replace residents who tend to ride transit frequently. Such changes in residential patterns could help to explain sharp transit ridership declines in California in the 2010s ahead of much sharper pandemic-related ridership losses in 2020. Indeed, we find that California’s most transit-friendly neighborhoods have changed in ways that do not bode well for transit use. The state’s shares of poor, immigrant, African American, and zero-vehicle households have all declined modestly to substantially since 2000. Collectively, these trends point to changes in California’s most transit-friendly neighborhoods that are not very, well, transit-friendly.

Abstract

Problem, research strategy, and findings:
In many U.S. metropolitan areas, housing costs have skyrocketed in recent years relative to average incomes. A worsening shortage of affordable housing in these metros may push households away from job-rich cities and expensive neighborhoods into outlying areas, where housing is cheaper but jobs are more distant. To examine this issue, we revisit the jobs-housing balance, a popular topic of research in the 1990s, with a focus on the relationship between housing and the spatial location of workers relative to jobs. Our analysis draws on data from the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES) for cities in California in 2002 and 2015. In contrast to earlier jobs-housing balance research, we find that California cities are becoming less self-contained over time, defined as a decline in the number of workers who both live and work within a jurisdiction relative to the number of commuters who travel either into or out of a city for work. Statistical models show that self-containment was higher in cities with lower housing costs and, in 2015, in cities with a greater balance between jobs and employed residents.

Takeaway for practice:
The deepening housing affordability crisis in many metropolitan areas like those found in California is pushing workers and jobs farther apart, increasing the economic, social, and environmental costs of commuting. Policies to increase the supply of housing in job-rich and high–housing cost areas could help reverse this troubling trend, though they are likely to meet with considerable resistance. Our findings also underscore the importance of efforts that include but extend beyond housing production, such as policies to better match job skills and housing prices to the characteristics of workers.

Abstract

Buses, bus stops, trains, and train platforms represent sites of shelter for many of the over 500,000 Americans who are unhoused every night. This study seeks to understand how transit agencies are responding to them. Based on interviews with staff members and partners at 10 different transit agencies and on program performance data, where available, we provide detailed case studies of four sets of strategies taken in response to homelessness in transit systems: a hub of services, mobile outreach, discounted fares, and transportation to shelters. We analyze each strategy’s scope, implementation, impact, challenges, and lessons learned. Reviewing these strategies, we note that they may differ depending on the context, need, and available resources. We find value in transit agencies fostering external partnerships with social service organizations and other municipal departments and keeping law enforcement distinct from routine homeless outreach. We also underline the key need for funding from other levels of government to allow transit operators to adopt, expand, and refine homelessness response programs.