HUFFINGTON
11.11.12
NO WAY OUT
the most, having experience and
qualifications, but you can’t get
to the destination,” Stinson says.
“It’s a painful situation here. I’ll
tell you, I’m not one to give up
hope, but, man, it makes your
self-esteem drop. Your confidence
disappears. Sometimes, I just
can’t think about it. You get so
it’s all that’s in your head. ‘I need
a job, but I can’t get there.’ I just
want to feel like I’m back, like I’m
part of the world again.”
Stinson’s challenge underscores
a formidable barrier separating
millions of poor Americans from
the working world, particularly
as work continues to shift to the
suburbs: Limited public transportation networks reduce the ability
of those who need work to actually find it, worsening an already
bleak job market.
On top of the most catastrophic
economic downturn since the
Great Depression, the continued
impact of automation, and the
shift of domestic production to
lower-wage nations, here is a less
dramatic yet no less decisive constraint that limits opportunities
for many working-age Americans:
The bus does not go where the
paychecks are.
Nearly 40 million working-age
people now live in parts of major American metropolitan areas
that lack public transportation,
according to an analysis by the
Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. The consequences of this disconnection
fall with particular severity on the
poor. One in 10 low-income resi-
IN CHATTANOOGA,
AS IN MUCH OF
AMERICA, GETTING
A JOB AND GETTING
TO A JOB ARE TWO
DIFFERENT THINGS.
dents relies on some form of public transportation to get to work,
according to the report.
In the nation’s 100 largest
metropolitan areas, nearly half
of all jobs lie more than 10 miles
from the downtown core, according to a prior study by Elizabeth
Kneebone, a Brookings researcher. For the typical resident, more
than two-thirds of the jobs in
the 100 largest metro areas are
beyond range of a 90-minute
commute using mass transit.
A separate Brookings study re-