Access to Transportation - Distributional Impacts of Physical Mobility On Social Mobility

How do the Distributional Impacts of Physical Mobility On Social Mobility Affect Access to Transportation?

Advances in transportation technology make more information, goods, services, educational and employment opportunities, land, recreation, and so forth available to those with access to transportation (Yago, 1983). The unequal distribution of that access on the basis of race, sex, income, and class has been the focus of a growing body of transportation research. Since the McCone Commission first noted the impact of rail transit abandonments upon the Watts Riot in Los Angeles, the issue of the distribution of access to transportation within metropolitan regions has been raised periodically, suggesting the distributional impacts of physical mobility upon social mobility (Yago, 1983).

Amy Ford, graduate student researcher at UCLA, believes that in Los Angeles "access to public transit is very good - the system is vast and has generally good spatial coverage. As well as the big transit systems, there are many smaller systems that cover the gaps between the larger carriers. That said, service can be sparse on a given line, meaning that even if you live next to a bus stop, you might have a bus coming by only once an hour in places. Additionally, the traffic congestion is such that timetables cannot, in general, be guaranteed. One day you can set your watch by the local bus, the next day your bus is caught in some road maintenance traffic, and you wait and wait with no idea when the bus will appear."

She also comments on the accessibility of Los Angeles public transit for the handicapped. "If accessible is defined by ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] requirements, we would say it's about a 7 or 8 [out of 10, 10 being the best]. All equipment is ADA compliant, but operators can vary greatly in how helpful they are to ADA patrons."