The Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) set out to examine the ability of persons and communities to reliably access transit in its research, “No Ticket to Ride: A Systematic Definition of Transit Insecurity.”
The report presents a research-based definition of transit insecurity as the inability to consistently access or afford reliable transportation, leading to demonstrable negative impacts on a person or community. This work unifies existing research under a consistent conceptual heading and provides a framework that will foster future research in this area.
Using a systematic review of literature on transportation, this analysis presents four primary factors that contribute to transit insecurity.
- Income level: Several studies used in this research found transit insecurity to be more prevalent in lower income individuals or neighborhoods.
- Travel distance: Several studies demonstrate the negative impacts that travel distance can have on an individual’s likelihood to make use of health services. For example, one study found that individuals with diabetes actually had higher glycemic levels when they lacked transportation access and were not able to visit health care facilities for treatment.
- Travel duration: Similarly, multiple studies suggest that long travel time contributes to persons or communities being transit insecure, which can exacerbate negative health outcomes.
- Accessibility: Several studies have shown that transit environments have not always been inclusive of individuals with cognitive impairments and individuals with disabilities.
“Along with the direct effects of inability to consistently access transit, we suspect that there are links between transit insecurity and other, more well-studied issues like food- and job-insecurity; we hope these links will become increasingly apparent with further research,” explained the study’s author, Dr. Dan Nathan-Roberts.
MTI says the first step to addressing a problem is to adequately define it. This research can aid in understanding the impacts of unreliable access to transportation networks. Using this framework, lawmakers, for example, could make use of the definition to pass laws that address inequalities that result from people experiencing transit insecurity.
Similarly, city planners and other transportation professionals could use this established definition to identify locations that need more transit and to prioritize work in communities where transit insecurity is widespread—effectively making transportation more equitable for communities that need it most.
