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Total Results: 100
Refereed Journal Articles
2015
Transportation Access, Residential Location, and Economic Opportunity: Evidence from Two Housing Voucher Experiments
Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and ResearchEvelyn Blumenberg, Gregory Pierce, Michael Smart
Access to automobiles may be particularly important to housing voucher recipients, who are more likely than residents of public housing to live in suburban neighborhoods where transit service is often limited. Access to high-quality public transit is more likely to benefit low-income households who live in dense central-city neighborhoods in close proximity to employment. In this analysis we draw on survey data from two housing voucher experiments—the Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing and Welfare-to Work Voucher programs—to examine the relationshipbetween access to automobiles and public transit and the employment and earnings outcomes of program participants.
Our research underscores the importance of automobiles in achieving desirable outcomes for families who receive subsidized housing. Access to automobiles is associated with improved economic outcomes for all program participants and better facilitates job acquisition, job retention, and earnings than public transit. Our findings suggest the need to better link housing and transportation programs and to pursue a set of policies that increase automobile access among all subsidized housing recipients.
Refereed Journal Articles
2014
Getting Around When You’re Just Getting By: Transportation Survival Strategies of the Poor
Journal of PovertyEvelyn Blumenberg, Asha Weinstein Agrawal
Researchers argue that transportation expenditures impose a heavy burden on low-income households, many of whom experience difficulty managing their travel costs. However, relatively little research explores how low-income households manage their mobility needs. To address this issue, this study uses qualitative data from interviews with 73 low-income people living in and around San Jose, California. The interviews reveal the resiliency of low-income families in creatively managing their transportation costs. However, the transportation survival strategies of the poor can come at a high price—fewer miles traveled and, therefore, reduced access to opportunities that may lift them out of poverty.
Refereed Journal Articles
2014
A Driving Factor in Mobility? Transportation’s Role in Connecting Subsidized Housing and Employment Outcomes in the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) Program
Journal of the American Planning AssociationEvelyn Blumenberg, Gregory Pierce
Problem, research strategy, and findings: We evaluate the role of transportation in improving the employment outcomes of participants in the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) for Fair Housing Voucher Program, a 10-year demonstration project designed to enable low-income families to improve their outcomes by moving out of high-poverty neighborhoods. We use longitudinal data from the MTO program to assess the role of transportation—automobiles and improved access to public transit—in moving to, and maintaining, employment. We use multi-nomial logistic regression to predict changes in employment status as a function of change in automobile availability and transit accessibility, controlling for other potential determinants of employment. We find that keeping or gaining access to an automobile is positively related to the likelihood of employment. Improved access to public transit is positively associated with maintaining employment, but not with job gains. Although we cannot say for certain whether car ownership preceded or followed employment, it is clear that having a car provides multiple benefits that facilitate getting and keeping a job.
Takeaway for practice: Policies to increase automobile access among low-income households—even in dense urban areas—will most clearly enhance job gain and job retention. While auto programs are unpopular with many planners, they would improve the lives of low-income families who currently have the least access to cars. In addition, supporting moves to transit-rich neighborhoods may help households maintain consistent employment.
Refereed Journal Articles
2014
Driving to Opportunities: Voucher Users, Cars, and Movement to Sustainable Neighborhoods
Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and ResearchRolf Pendall, Christopher Hayes, Casey Dawkins, Jae Sik Jeon, Elijah Knaap, Evelyn Blumenberg, Gregory Pierce, Michael Smart
In the 1990s and early 2000s, the Department of Housing and Urban Development sponsored two major experiments to test whether housing choice vouchers propelled low-income households into greater economic security, the Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing program (MTO) and the Welfare to Work Voucher program (WTW). Using data from these programs, this study examines differences in residential location and employment outcomes between voucher recipients with access to automobiles and those without. Overall, the findings underscore the positive role of automobiles in outcomes for housing voucher participants.
Refereed Journal Articles
2014
Travel Behavior of the Poor Post-Welfare Reform
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research BoardEvelyn Blumenberg, Trevor Thomas
In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, also known as welfare reform. As part of this act, Congress established welfare block grant programs that included a set of provisions intended to promote employment. In the aftermath of these reforms, policy makers turned to transportation as one strategy to transition welfare recipients and other low-income adults rapidly into the labor market. As the foundation for these transportation programs, studies documented the travel patterns of the poor and highlighted the limited access of these individuals to automobiles. Given the many changes since the 1990s, it is time to revisit these data. This study draws on the 1995 Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey and the 2009 National Household Travel Survey to examine changes in the commute travel of low-income adults since welfare reform. The data provide evidence that the reliance on automobiles has increased significantly over time; the growth reflects the many advantages of cars in increasingly decentralized environments. However, some population groups—particularly the carless—have become more dependent on public transit to access work. These findings suggest the importance of protecting and expanding vital transit services for those who need them, as well as acting on behalf of low-income households that may be better served through personal vehicular travel.
Refereed Journal Articles
2014
Multimodal Travel and the Poor: Evidence from the 2009 National Household Travel Survey
Transportation LettersEvelyn Blumenberg, Gregory Pierce
Most travel behavior studies focus on discrete mode-choice outcomes. They predict the likelihood of traveling by a single mode (e.g. solo driving, carpooling, taking public transit, walking, and biking). Yet qualitative studies focusing on low-income households suggest that their mode choice does not fit neatly into a single category; they regularly “transportation package,” use multiple modes of travel in a single day. The authors use data from the 2009 National Household Travel Summary to examine the extent to which individuals’ engage in multimodal travel and to determine whether low-income individuals transportation package more than higher-income individuals, controlling for other factors.
The authors find that multimodal travel is less – not more – prevalent among low-income adults than higher-income adults. However, there are important differences in the number and mix of modes that appear to be influenced by income. Moreover, low-income multimodal travelers took far more trips than even higher-income unimodal travelers. This finding suggests that providing viable avenues for multimodal travel may enhance low-income individuals’ mobility, particularly if they face barriers to automobile access.
Refereed Journal Articles
2013
Brother Can You Spare a Ride? Carpooling in Immigrant Neighborhoods
Urban StudiesEvelyn Blumenberg, Michael Smart
Immigrants are more likely to travel by carpool than the US-born. Strong ethnic ties within immigrant communities may contribute to immigrants’ propensity to carpool, enabling residents to find carpool partners more easily and increasing the likelihood that residents will travel to and from common destinations. Drawing on data from the 2000 US census and a 2001 regional travel survey, this paper examines whether residents of ethnic neighbourhoods in Southern California are more likely to carpool than other residents. A strong positive relationship is found between the percentage foreign-born in a census tract and carpooling rates. Analysis of individual data shows that this relationship is strongest for immigrants who live in immigrant neighbourhoods; immigrants living in non-immigrant neighbourhoods are less likely to carpool. These findings suggest an important role for social networks in travel behaviour and the potential benefits of linking land use to the specific needs of local residents.
Reports
2013
The Next Generation of Travel: Statistical Analysis
Evelyn Blumenberg, Brian D. Taylor, Michael Smart, Kelcie Ralph, Madeline Wander, Stephen Brumbaugh
Refereed Journal Articles
2012
Automobile Ownership and Travel of the Poor: Evidence from the 2009 National Household Travel Survey
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research BoardEvelyn Blumenberg, Gregory Pierce
Income, or the lack of it, influences household transportation decisions and the ways in which individuals travel. Low-income households are less likely to own cars and more likely to travel by modes other than the automobile. Less is known, however, about the specific determinants of travel among the poor, which was the purpose of this analysis. This study used data from the 2009 National Household Travel Survey to examine the relationship between income and automobile ownership and the role of automobile ownership in explaining person miles traveled. An analysis was then made of whether these determinants varied by income group. The results indicated that low-income adults rapidly convert rising income into additional mobility at faster rates than higher-income adults. Further, automobile ownership increases person miles traveled for all adults; however, it is particularly influential in increasing the travel of low-income adults. Households accrue greater marginal benefits by moving from zero to one vehicle than by purchasing additional vehicles when they already own one or more. These findings underscore the importance of automobile ownership to the mobility of low-income households and suggest an important role for policy in facilitating low-income auto ownership.
Reports
2012
What’s Youth Got to Do with It? Exploring the Travel Behavior of Teens and Young Adults
UC Berkeley: University of California Transportation CenterEvelyn Blumenberg, Brian D. Taylor, Michael Smart, Kelcie Ralph, Madeline Wander, Stephen Brumbaugh
Today’s teens are members of the first generation to have never known a world without instantaneous and nearly ubiquitous mobile phone access. They also must surmount greater hurdles to driver’s licensing than any previous generation faced. And they are struggling to transition into the most unwelcoming job market since the Great Depression. These tectonic happenings surely augur equally dramatic changes in the travel choices and patterns of young adults in the years ahead. Or will they? This report examines this question.
While scholars have studied the travel choices and patterns of adults extensively over the years, our knowledge of youth travel behavior is surprisingly limited and uneven. There is a growing body of research on how children travel to school and a second body of research on youth and travel safety, in particular, the high rates of crashes and driving fatalities among teenagers. Beyond these two rather focused lines of inquiry, however, studies of travel by children, teens, and young adults are rare.
Researchers have posited several factors to explain differences in the travel behavior of youth and adults, and to support the argument that such differences may persist as today’s youth move into adulthood. First, the rapid profusion and adoption of new communication technologies influences how people use their time and may affect how much they travel (Kwan, 2002), and young people tend to be early and frequent adopters of these technologies (Mans et al., forthcoming; Lenhart et al., 2005; Pew Research Center, 2010b). Second, all 50 states have now adopted graduated driver’s licensing programs, making teen licensing more difficult and restrictive (with respect to time, trip purpose, and passengers) than in previous eras (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 2012). Third, unemployment rates during the current recession are highest for youth, thereby reducing journey-to-work and work-related travel and limiting the resources teens and young adults have to pay for non-work activities (and associated travel) of all types. This prolonged economic downturn may also influence youth travel patterns indirectly; fragmentary evidence suggests that young adults struggling to find work increasingly “boomerang” back home to live with parents (Kaplan, 2009; Pew Research Center, 2010b; Wiemers, 2011), drawn by a free or steeply discounted bedroom, groceries, and, perhaps, access to parents’ cars.
Book Chapters
2011
Migrating to Driving: Exploring the Multiple Dimensions of Immigrants’ Automobile Use
Auto Motives: Understanding Car Use BehaviourEvelyn Blumenberg, Michael Smart
Refereed Journal Articles
2010
Planning for Demographic Diversity: The Case of Immigrants and Public Transit
Journal of Public TransportationEvelyn Blumenberg, Alexandra E. Evans
This research examines the significant effects of immigration on transit use. Drawing on data from the U.S. Census, we examine how the enormous influx of immigrants to California has altered the demographics of transit commuting in the state and contributed importantly to a growth in transit ridership. California immigrants commute by public transit at twice the rate of native-born commuters, comprise nearly 50 percent of all transit commuters in the state, and are responsible for much of the growth in transit commuting in the state. But over time, immigrants’ reliance on transit declines. Transit managers would be well advised to plan for these inevitable demographic changes by enhancing transit services in neighborhoods that serve as ports to entry for new immigrants, those most likely to rely on public transportation.
Refereed Journal Articles
2010
Getting by with a Little Help from My Friends…and Family: Immigrants and Carpooling
TransportationEvelyn Blumenberg, Michael Smart
While much of the scholarly literature on immigrants’ travel focuses on transit use, the newest arrivals to the United States make over twelve times as many trips by carpool as by transit. Using the 2001 National Household Travel Survey and multinomial logit mode choice models, we examine the determinants of carpooling. In particular, we focus on the likelihood of carpooling among immigrants—carpooling both within and across households. After controlling for relevant determinants of carpooling, we find that immigrants are far more likely to form household carpools than native-born adults and also are more likely than the native-born to form external carpools (outside the household). Moreover, when faced with the options of carpooling and public transit, immigrants—even recent arrivals—appear to prefer carpools over transit more strongly than the native born.
Refereed Journal Articles
2010
Accessibility and Cognition: The Effect of Transportation Mode on Spatial Knowledge
Urban StudiesAndrew Mondschein, Evelyn Blumenberg, Brian D. Taylor
Spatial behaviour and decision-making require knowledge of the urban environment, including opportunities available and the means to reach them. Thus, variations in spatial knowledge can result in radically different levels of effective accessibility, despite similar locations, demographics and other factors commonly thought to influence travel behaviour. Cognitive maps, which develop primarily through wayfinding and travel experience, are individuals’ repositories of spatial knowledge. This paper examines whether differences in cognitive maps can be explained, in part, by variations in travel mode. Adults were surveyed in two Los Angeles neighbourhoods with relatively low auto use and high transit use. The data show that spatial knowledge does indeed vary with previous experience with travel modes.
Refereed Journal Articles
2009
Moving In and Moving Around: Immigrants, Travel Behavior, and Implications for Transport Policy
Transportation Letters
Despite the size and growth of the immigrant population in the U.S., only a handful of scholars have studied the travel behavior of immigrants and its impact on our nation's roads, highways, and transit systems. Yet immigration has affected and will continue to affect our transportation infrastructure significantly. In particular, the data suggest that immigration has contributed to increased travel across all transportation modes, the growth in transit commuters, and a shift in the demographic composition of transit riders. These trends have implications for congestion, the future of transit ridership, and opportunities to better address the travel needs of immigrants.
Refereed Journal Articles
2008
Civil Liberties and the Regulation of Public Space: The Case of Sidewalks in Las Vegas
Environment and Planning AEvelyn Blumenberg, Renia Ehrenfeucht
Conflicts over the nature of and rights associated with public space have a long history and have prompted numerous regulatory responses. Perhaps nowhere in the USA has the regulation of public space been as far-reaching as in Las Vegas, Nevada, where the financial stakes associated with sidewalks are enormous. This study examines how local officials mediate among varied and competing uses of the sidewalk. In defining the function of the sidewalks narrowly and passively deferring questions of civil liberties, local officials have effectively controlled almost all aspects of public behavior. In recent years, cities have invested in major commercial realization projects. Evidence from this case study suggests that, if successful, these developments will engender more extensive regulation of public life and the further curtailment of the freedoms traditionally guaranteed to citizen activity in public places.
Refereed Journal Articles
2008
Immigrants and Transport Barriers to Employment: The Case of Southeast Asian Welfare Recipients in California
Transport PolicyEvelyn Blumenberg
Increasing international migration has prompted public officials to develop policies to better integrate foreign-born residents. While scholars have shown the positive relationship between access to transport and economic outcomes among low-income adults, very little is known about this relationship with respect to immigrants. This study examines transport and employment rates among low-income adults focusing specifically on Southeast Asian refugees. The findings show the importance of automobiles across all racial and ethnic groups. Southeast Asians, however, report the greatest difficulty with their travel largely because they face auto-related problems including the age and unreliability of their vehicles. These findings suggest the need for both universal and group-specific policies for addressing the transport needs of the poor.
Refereed Monographs
2008
The Role of Transportation in Emergency Evacuation: Transportation Research Board Special Report 294
Transportation Research Board: The National Academies PressRichard A. White, Evelyn Blumenberg, Kenneth A. Brown, John M. Contestabile, Ali Haghani, Arnold M. Howitt, Thomas C. Lambert, Betty Hearn Morrow, Michael H. Setzer, Ellis M. Stanley Sr., Andrew Velásquez III
Refereed Journal Articles
2008
Travel Behavior of Mexican and Other Immigrant Groups in California
Berkeley Planning JournalSusan Handy, Evelyn Blumenberg, Moria Donahue, Kristin Lovejoy, Caroline Rodier, Susan Shaheen, Kimiko Shiki, Lily K. Song
California is the destination for over one-quarter of immigrants to the United States, and immigrants now make up over one-quarter of the state's population. To ensure that transportation systems and services adequately meet the needs of recent immigrants, planners need a firm understanding of the travel behavior of immigrant groups. This paper reports on key findings from a three-phased study: (1) analysis of data on commute travel of California immigrants from the 1980, 1990, and 2000 Censuses; (2) focus groups with recent Mexican immigrants on their transportation experiences and needs in six California regions; and (3) interviews with community-based organizations in nine California regions on the transportation needs and wants of Mexican immigrants. These findings point to a long list of potential strategies for agencies and organizations to consider in efforts to more effectively meet the transportation needs of Mexican and other immigrants in California.
Refereed Journal Articles
2006
Devolution and Transport Policy for the Working Poor: The Case of the U.S. Job Access and Reverse Commute Program
Planning Theory and PracticeEvelyn Blumenberg, Lisa Schweitzer
For more than a decade US transport policy has shifted or ‘devolved’ responsibility for transportation decision making away from the federal government toward lower jurisdictions. Decentralization is intended to foster social experimentation and, ultimately, improve transit planning and service provision. This study examines the merits of devolution through an analysis of the federal Job Access and Reverse Commute (JARC) grant program, created as part of the 1998 Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century. The JARC program funds state and regional transportation agencies to provide transit services to low-wage workers. The evidence suggests that the devolution of federal transportation authority has helped to create new and innovative transportation services targeted to low-wage workers. However, the program's weaknesses offer potential strategies for strengthening the benefits of devolution such as ensuring the reliability of federal funds, flexibility in the use of these funds, and greater program accountability.