Local Access, Non-Work Travel, and Survival Tactics In Low-Income Neighborhoods

Author: Kelly J. Clifton

Dissertation School: University of Texas, Austin

Pages: 267

Publication Date: May 2001

Availability:
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Access Number: 10734

Abstract:

Retail and services are often least adequate, in terms of both quantity and quality, in neighborhoods where the residents have the most limited transportation options. Poor accessibility affects the ways in which residents go about fulfilling their household demands, and in some cases, needs may be unmet. The relationships between household needs and non-work travel behavior have not been explored extensively in the literature, particularly for low-income populations.

This research proposes to examine and evaluate the access to local shopping and service establishments available to residents of low-income neighborhoods in the Austin, Texas metropolitan area, and to identify the consequences that poor access has on residents and the strategies that they devise to cope. Of particular interest are the daily struggles that working families encounter as they juggle the responsibilities of home and work under the constraints of poor accessibility and limited income.

The research approach will combine quantitative and qualitative methods and rely on data from a variety of sources. In particular, the access that low-income households in Austin, TX have to childcare services, grocery stores, medical care, and financial service institutions will be determined through an analysis of the geographic distribution of those establishments relative to low-income residential areas. A descriptive analysis of the non-work travel patterns of low-income households will be developed using travel survey diary data for the Austin area with special emphasis given to how trips are distributed geographically and temporally. Then, a series of in-depth interviews will be conducted with members of several low-income households in selected neighborhoods in order to elicit the activity needs, the travel constraints, and the coping tactics of residents.

The results and conclusions produced by this research are important for developing more effective transportation, economic development, housing and social welfare programs. Understanding the constraints created and exacerbated by poor access and limited transportation options and the ways in which households cope has implications for a number of housing and urban development policies:

• Identifying the deficits in neighborhood retail and services and the subsequent consequences for residents can guide economic and community development policies.
• The inadequate access to employment that many residents of inner cities experience has been the target of recent welfare to work policies. The increased time pressures and logistical constraints faced by the working poor in their struggle to fulfill their household needs, such as buying groceries, banking, medical care, and daycare, may have repercussions in their ability to find and maintain employment. These implications have largely been discounted or overlooked in current Welfare-to-Work initiatives.
• The siting of affordable and subsidized housing can be aided by information about resident access and transportation needs.

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