Transportation Insecurity

Transportation cost burden measures the percent of income a household spends on transportation. USDOT measures transportation cost burden by calculating the primary costs associated with a household means of transportation: auto ownership & operating costs, transit costs, and commuting time costs.  

The cost of transportation, impacts the total dollars that households spend on transportation. When people spend a greater percentage of annual household income on transportation (transit costs; vehicle maintenance and insurance costs; gasoline and fuel) they have less money left to spend on food, housing, education, and other important needs. USDOT considers a household to be transportation cost burdened if its spends 15% or more of its annual income on transportation and 45% or more on transportation and housing combined.  To read more about USDOT’s Cost Burden KPI Public Summary Review.
 

Overall, this indicator provides a view of transportation challenges faced by communities and their impact on well-being and opportunities. Long commute times and limited access to personal vehicles can create significant barriers to employment, while high walkability and frequent public transit options can provide greater access to employment and resources.

USDOT’s Transportation Access composite variable incorporates automobile prevalence, average commute time, average walking and driving times to various points of interest including grocery stores and medical facilities, and access to jobs and transit, measuring the level of access that communities have to transportation options and to needed services via transportation. This indicator is calculated by combining data from the Census Bureau (on commute time and vehicle ownership), U.S. EPA Smart Location Database (on jobs within a 45-minute drive, intersection density, and transit frequency per square mile), and distance from census tracts to selected points of interest.
 

Measuring transportation safety is crucial in understanding transportation insecurity by highlighting areas that are disadvantaged due to unsafe conditions and high crash rates, which can be improved through additional or improved infrastructure and safety measures. 62% of communities in the top 20% of roadway fatalities are disadvantaged.  22% of all fatal crashes in disadvantaged communities result in the death of a pedestrian.  Given these statistics, integrating equity is essential to address disparate fatal and serious injury crash outcomes impacting underserved communities and vulnerable road users.  USDOT is encouraging transportation agencies to adopt the Safe System Approach which anticipates human mistakes and accommodates human vulnerabilities by designing and operating the roadway system to be safe for everyone—particularly for people who are disproportionately impacted by crash fatalities and serious injuries.