New Research Maps Transit Poverty

New research provides sorely needed tools for illustrating the neighborhoods that suffer a lack of transportation options to access jobs and opportunity.

1 minute read

February 7, 2015, 5:00 AM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


"Two Dutch researchers have developed a new way to identify where the residents are most at risk of transport poverty," according to an article by Cassie Ownes.

"Using their new index, [Karel] Martens and [Jeroen] Bastiaanssen first determine the 'average regional accessibility level.' Their formula assesses trips within zones against the number of jobs and poor households per census tract. Next, they reduce this regional average into fractions, like 20 percent or 30 percent of average access, to see where the transport poor might be."

Martens and Bastiaanssen produced original transit poverty maps to illustrate their work—exclusively for Next City—of Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Houston.

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