Spatial and Temporal Measures of Mismatch between Transit Supply and Employment for Low Income and Auto Dependent Populations

Spatial mismatch is a mismatch between where low-income households reside and where jobs are located. Since its emergence in the 60s, the implication of the term has been expanded and currently includes any mismatch between employment demands of low incomes and job supply. A sizeable literature has emphasized the role of public transportation to alleviate spatial mismatch problem. Better transit service can properly match low incomes to work so narrow such gap. The objective of this study is to research the levels that transit supply meets the spatial and temporal employment demands of worker population in general and the Low Income and High Car Ownership (LIHCO) population in specific. Utilizing conventional and spatial statistics, this study investigates whether and where the local bus service in New Haven County, Connecticut meets the demands for commute during different time intervals. The paper uses a synthetic population generator for cross-tabulation of different demand-side socioeconomic and temporal variables up to person level and Google Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) for supply-side transit quality of service measure calculations. The findings show indications of mismatch between bus frequency supply and employment in New Haven County during Evening and AM service hours. More consideration with regards to bus frequency of service during Evening and AM hours is proposed. Future research might consider inclusion of other service performance measures, such as passenger load and reliability into transit accessibility. Route-based calculation methods using detailed travel survey data might also expand this work