There are over 7.5 million households in the U.S. in which the residents do not own an automobile. Of course, these homes rely on public transportation to commute to work, schools and shopping. Yet, 700,000 of those households don’t even have access to public transit, according to the Brookings Institution. And for those with access, just over 40% of jobs in their metropolitan areas are accessible within 90 minutes. In some areas, it is much worse. 24/7 Wall St. identified the ten metropolitan areas with the lowest rates of job access, as outlined in the Brookings report.This lack of effective transportation is extremely restrictive, limiting where people can work and what they can do. Sixty percent of zero-vehicle households have incomes that are less than 80% the median income for the metro area. Although it is unclear whether poor access to jobs increases the odds of poverty in and of itself, it is obvious that it plays some role. It is therefore not entirely surprising that areas with low job access have high rates of people with low incomes...
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