Transportation Equity in the Chicago Region

This report will examine how job access is distributed for low income people of different races in the Chicago seven county metropolitan area. Low income job accessibility is measured as a sum of jobs reachable within a 60 minute threshold by auto and transit modes, weighted inversely by the number of workers who can reach that job to account for demand. The Chicago region has a clear disparity in the level of low incoming job access between auto and transit modes, with the highest of transit access score being only 76% of the lowest auto access score. The urban core of the region has the highest transit access with relatively poor auto access. Regression shows that race and income are valid predictors of access for both modes, but do not explain a significant amount of the variation across the region. Job access has significant implications as a measure of transportation equity on a regional level, which is not adequately examined in current practice.Ope