Examining the Geography of Opportunity through a New Public Transit Opportunity Index [supporting datasets]

US Transportation Collectionhttps://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/HCAMST2020CSVDatasetPainter, GaryBoarnet, Marlon GSwayne, MadisonUniversity of Southern CaliforniaPacific Southwest Region 9 UTC, University of Southern CaliforniaUnited States. Department of Transportation. University Transportation Centers (UTC) ProgramUniversity of Southern CaliforniaUnited StatesAccessibilityAutomobile ownershipCommutingJobsResidential areasSpatial analysisTransportation disadvantaged personsTravel behaviorTravel timeUrban areasWorkplacesPublic transitEmploymentGeographyData analysisEquity (Justice)PSR-17-0969A3551747109The project introduces a new index of geographic opportunity that improves upon existing measures to analyze the spatial mismatch between job growth and populations in urban settings. Past measures of job accessibility have relied on measures of linear distance between populations and job, actual commute times for those working, or much simpler regional approaches. These past measures suffer from combinations of measurement error and endogeneity due to the fact that linear distance is most relevant if someone has a car and commute times derived from a working population subsumes a set of job market and residential choices for this population. Past measures are most problematic for the most disadvantaged populations that are unlikely to have a car. The new gravity model focus on travel time in public transportation using Generalized Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data. We compare this measure of job accessibility to measures of auto and walking accessibility in 9 large metropolitan areas to determine the association between job accessibility and employment outcomes at the Census tract level. We find that labor force participation is consistently higher in places with greater transit accessibility between 15-45 minutes away. In contrast, accessibility by automobiles is most consistently associated with jobs that can be reached within 15 minutes.115