The Washington region may have one of the largest transit networks in the country, but a new report says that doesn’t necessarily mean it offers the best connections for workers to get to their jobs. Washington ranks 17th out of the 100 largest metropolitan areas nationwide in having its transit system connect workers to their jobs, according to a Brookings Institution report to be released Thursday. That puts it behind New York City and San Francisco but also more surprising places such as Honolulu, San Jose, Calif., and Salt Lake City.
“These are not places that are well known for their transit, but what they do have is a compact footprint,” said Alan Berube, a senior fellow who co-authored the report. “They’re not as sprawling.”
| Top towns for commuter connections |
| 1. Honolulu |
| 2. San Jose, Calif. |
| 3. Salt Lake City |
| 4. Tucson, Ariz. |
| 5. Fresno, Calif. |
| …. |
| 13. New York City |
| 16. San Francisco |
| 17. Washington |
| 18. Seattle |
| 34. Boston |
| 46. Chicago |
| 49. Philadelphia |
| Source: Brookings Institution, “Missed Opportunity: Jobs and Transit in Metropolitan America” |
The report found that 82 percent of working-age, Washington-area residents live near a transit stop of some kind. But only 37 percent of jobs are reachable via transit within 90 minutes. The authors said they realize that 90 minutes represents a long commute, but when they looked at 45-minute commutes, only 7 percent of jobs were accessible by transit in metropolitan areas nationwide.
The report looked at 371 transit systems ranging from buses to ferries to subways and used schedule and mapping data to determine how well transit systems are able to connect workers to jobs.
Although urban planners have traditionally laid out and evaluated transit systems on other measures, the report said they need to focus on how the transit helps get people to jobs. Such connections are critical to helping the economic recovery, the authors said.
The Washington region does serve the people who need transit services the most, though, the report found. Low-income residents had better coverage, more frequent service and better job access than middle- and high-income workers, the report found. The median wait time during rush hour for a low-income worker was 4.5 minutes, for example, compared with 8.5 minutes for high-income workers locally and 10 minutes nationally.
Berube said that the key to improving access to Washington-area jobs will be to better connect suburban job centers, not just running trips downtown. Planned projects like the Purple Line between New Carrollton and Bethesda would help, he said.
