California Transportation Needs Assessment: the Transportation Barriers and Needs of Welfare Recipients and Low-Wage Workers
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UCLA Community Service Projects/Papers Title California Transportation Needs Assessment: The Transportation Barriers and Needs of Welfare Recipients and Low-Wage Workers Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0g04h3rt Authors Blumenberg, Evelyn Miller, Douglas Schweitzer, Lisa et al. Publication Date 2003-05-01 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California CALIFORNIA TRANSPORTATION NEEDS ASSESSMENT: The Transportation Barriers and Needs of Welfare Recipients and Low-Wage Workers May 30, 2003 Prepared by: Evelyn Blumenberg, Doug Miller, Mark Garrett, Lisa Schweitzer Karen Kitsis, Michael Manville, and Bravishwar Mallavarapu The Ralph & Goldy Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research Prepared for the California Department of Transportation California Transportation Needs Assessment: The Transportation Barriers and Needs of Welfare Recipients and Low-Wage Workers Final Draft Prepared by: Evelyn Blumenberg, Douglas Miller, Mark Garrett, Lisa Schweitzer Karen Kitsis, Michael Manville, and Bravishwar Mallavarapu The Ralph & Goldy Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research Prepared for the California Department of Transportation May 30, 2003 Funding for this study was provided by the California Department of Transportation, State Planning and Research Program (80% Federal Highway Administration and 20% State transportation funds). Disclaimer The statements and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the California Department of Transportation. Copyright Information The text of this document and any images (e.g. photos, graphics, figures, and tables) that are specifically attributed (in full or in coordination with another group) to the California Department of Transportation may be freely distributed or copied, so long as full credit is provided. California Department of Transportation Debbie R. Mah, Chief, Division of Mass Transportation James Ogbonna, Project Manager California Department of Transportation ii Members of the Policy Advisory Committee Employment Development Sacramento Employment & Department, Sacramento Training Agency Don Migge, Manager Christine Welsh, Manager Tulare County Association Department of Social of Governments Services, Sacramento Bob Stocker, Assistant Director Venus Garth, Manager Metropolitan Transportation AC Transit, Oakland Agency, Los Angeles Lionel Vera, Grants Manager Transit Services Coordination Desiree Rabinov-Portillo, Manager Sacramento Urban League La Cooperative Compesina Rashid Sidqe de California Marco Micciche, Director California Department of Department of Social Transportation Services, Sacramento Dr. Adamu Ayalew Julie Kimura, Manager Research Manager II Facilitator: California Department of Transportation, Jake Smith, Senior Transportation Planner iii Acknowledgements This research would not have been possible without the contributions of many individuals and organizations. Thanks goes to the members of the policy advisory committee who were enthusiastic participants in the study offering numerous suggestions and insights into the research. Thanks also to the staff of the Federal Transit Administration as well as California metropolitan planning organizations and welfare agencies who took the time to answer our questions and send us materials. Thanks also to the California Department of Social Services (CDSS). The research reported here was performed with the permission of CDSS who provided us with the welfare and employment data necessary for the project. Finally, Professor Paul Ong, director of the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies at UCLA, provided a home for the project and enabled us to house confidential data without which this project would not have been possible. Many individuals were involved in assembling and analyzing the data for this report. Evelyn Blumenberg was the principal investigator of the project and, as such, was involved in designing the project and supervising all components of the research. Mark Garrett had the tedious task of geocoding the data and overseeing the production of most of the county maps. He accomplished this responsibility with the help of Bravishwar Mallavarapu and Ashok Das. Douglas Miller developed the profiles of welfare recipients and low-income adults in California and helped conduct the analysis in Section 5 of welfare recipients and their spatial access to employment. Karen Kitsis spent many hours assembling the database of welfare-transportation programs in California. Lisa Schweitzer stepped in to organize this database, effectively highlighting the many strengths and weaknesses of federally-funded transportation projects aimed at low- income adults. Finally, Michael Manville organized the review of the literature and was a skilled editor. The opinions and conclusions expressed in this report are solely those of the authors and do not represent the policy of any other contributing agency or organization. The authors, therefore, are solely responsible for any omissions or errors in this report. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents v List of Tables viii List of Figures ix List of Maps x Executive Summary xi 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Research Scope and Objectives 2 1.3 Data and Methodology 3 1.4 Organization of Report 6 2. Literature Review 8 2.1 Introduction 8 2.2 The Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis 10 2.3 The Reverse Commute Policy Response 16 2.4 Travel Behavior, Mass Transit, and the Labor Market 18 2.5 Public Transportation and the Poor 19 2.6 Automobiles and the Poor 24 2.7 Conclusions 28 3. Transportation and Low-Income Adults in California 30 3.1 Introduction 30 3.2 Low-Income Adults in California 30 3.3 Transportation and the Poor 41 4. Federal Programs to Meet the Transportation Needs of Welfare Recipients and Low-Wage Workers 44 4.1 Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and CalWORKs 44 4.2 The Job Access and Reverse Commute (JARC) Program 46 4.3 Welfare-to-Work Grants 48 4.4 The Collaborative Environment 50 5. Low-Income Adults and Geographic Access to Employment 52 5.1 Introduction – Employment Accessibility 52 5.2 Measuring Job Accessibility 55 5.3 Job Accessibility in Los Angeles County 56 5.4 Job Accessibility in the San Francisco-Bay Area, Fresno, Sacramento, and San Diego 64 v 5.5 The Relationship between Job Access and Welfare Usage Rates 69 5.6 Access to Employment in Rural Areas 71 5.7 Conclusions 72 6. Geographic Access to Non-Work Destinations 73 6.1 Trip Purpose 74 6.2 Travel to Child Care 75 6.3 Travel to Healthcare 79 6.4 Travel to Social Services 81 6.5 Travel to Other Destinations 82 6.6 Conclusions 82 7. Travel Mode: The Relationship between Public Transit, Automobiles, and Employment 84 7.1 The Role of Fixed-Route Public Transit 85 7.2 The Role of Private Vehicles 91 7.3 Travel Mode in Census-Designated Places in California 92 8. The Merits of Existing Transportation Programs for Low-Wage Workers 100 8.1 Twin Themes: Transportation and Devolution in Welfare Reform 101 8.2 Evaluation Framework 104 8.3 Research Methodology 108 8.4 Program Innovation 110 8.5 Interagency Relationships 115 8.6 Program Negotiation and Transaction Costs 120 8.7 Conclusions 123 9. Meeting the Transportation Needs of California’s Poor 124 9.1 Targeting Transportation Policies and Funds—Finessing the Urban-Rural Balance 125 9.2 Geographically-Targeted Transportation Services 125 9.3 Job Search Travel 128 9.4 The Role for Automobiles 128 9.5 Existing Transportation Programs for Low-Wage Workers 130 9.6 Future Analysis and Planning 132 9.7 Conclusions 133 Sources 135 Appendix A. Methodology and Data Sources 160 A.1 List of Data Sources 160 A.2 Geographic Database 161 A.3 Statewide Data Summaries and County Comparisons 165 A.4 Job Accessibility Measures 166 A.5 Job Access and Welfare Usage Models 168 A.6 Travel Mode, Auto Availability, and Employment Models 171 A.7 Methodology and Data Sources for Institutional Analysis 171 vi Appendix B. Detailed Descriptions of Federal Funding Programs 174 B.1 Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) 174 B.2 Job Access and Reverse Commute (JARC) Program 177 B.3 Welfare-to-Work Program 180 Appendix C. Detailed List of Existing Transportation Programs by Federal Funding Type 183 C.1 Transportation Programs Funded through CalWORKS 183 C.2 Competitive JARC Funding 202 C.3 JARC Funding by Congressional Earmark 204 C.4 Transportation Programs in Competitive Welfare-to-Work Grants 205 C.5 Transportation Programs in the Governor’s 15% Funds 206 C.6 Regional Transportation Plans and Transportation Services for the Poor 208 Appendix D. Common Abbreviations and Acronyms 213 Appendix E. High Density Census Tracts without Fixed-Route Transit 215 vii List of Tables Table 3.1 Growth in Working-Age Poverty, Distribution by County Type ..................... 32 Table 3.2 Population Distribution by County Type.......................................................... 35 Table 3.3 Median Income of CalWORKs Participants and Working-Age Adults, California.................................................................................................................... 41 Table 3.4 Selected Transportation Characteristics of CalWORKs Participants, Low- Income Adults, and Working-Age Adults in California ............................................ 42 Table 4.1 Federal and State TANF Expenditures, FY 2000 ............................................. 46 Table 4.2 JARC Grants and Earmarks for