HUFFINGTON
11.11.12
NO WAY OUT
leased recently finds that the
typical job in major metro areas
is accessible to only 27 percent
of all working age adults within
an hour-and-a-half commute on
public transportation.
Many of the country’s best-connected metropolitan areas are in
the West and the Northeast, according to Brookings. Despite its
notoriety as a car-centric domain,
the Los Angeles metro area has
a mass transit system that gets
within three-quarters of a mile of
96 percent of all working-age residents, the study finds. The San
Francisco Bay Area, New York,
Miami and Las Vegas are similarly
well served. The least-connected
urban areas are in the South,
among them Nashville, Richmond,
and Jackson, Miss.
At the bottom of the list is
Chattanooga, a metropolitan
area with an official labor force
of about 262,000 people. Here,
only 22.5 percent of workingage residents have access to public transportation.
Among urban planners, Chattanooga has developed a reputation as a place that has gotten
a lot right in recent times. Its
redeveloped waterfront on the
banks of the Tennessee River features a pedestrian-only bridge. A
free shuttle bus service operates
Stinson
prepares to
check job
listings at
the Career
Center in
the Brainerd
district of
Chattanooga.