Spatial Equity Analysis

A Case Study Example

In a planning study of the Chicago metropolitan area, authors examined in depth the transportation component of the welfare-to-work problem and provided strong support for the spatial mismatch hypothesis facing welfare clients and the unemployed. The study found the following:

• The spatial distribution of welfare clients and entry-level jobs imposed challenges for transit service providers because clients and jobs were dispersed throughout the metropolitan area.
• Welfare clients were likely to face significant difficulties in accessing jobs because of long distances and their need to access jobs through heavily congested urban areas, which resulted in extremely high door-to-door travel times between residential origins and job destinations, whether trips were by private automobile or existing transit services.
• There were wide variations in the travel times to job destinations from different neighborhoods. Some neighborhoods were relatively close to a large number of entry-level jobs, while others were rather far, and competition for the few [Page 1246]conveniently located jobs among many welfare clients made the transportation challenge much greater.
• Tremendous variations existed within the Chicago metropolitan area regarding spatial competition for jobs.
• Physical proximity to a job did not necessarily imply an increased opportunity for employment (i.e., if there are a large number of individuals in close proximity competing for the same job, there may be little benefit from physical proximity). In fact, the level of job accessibility in the Chicago central business district (at the time, close to 13 percent of all entry-level job openings) for welfare clients was lower than in many other areas in the region.
• Job stability in terms of full-time or part-time employment, as well as the length of job retention, appeared to be related to access to private transportation.

Transportation and Environmental Justice

Federal mandates dictate that land use and transportation analyses in state departments of transportation (DOTs) and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) consider the three core principles of environmental justice: (1) to avoid, minimize, or mitigate disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental effects, including social and economic effects, on minority populations and low-income populations; (2) to ensure the full and fair participation by all potentially affected communities in the transportation decision-making process; and (3) to prevent the denial of, reduction in, or significant delay in the receipt of benefits by minority and low-income populations.

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