Immobile: 500K stuck with no ride
More than half a million households in the 100 largest U.S. cities do not have cars or any access to public transportation, according to a study released on Thursday by the Brookings Institution.
The think tank, which researches metropolitan policy, found 700,000 metropolitan households lack access to cars or transit — with more than 100,000 in Atlanta, Dallas and Houston.
“These people are terribly constrained in earning a living, getting to the store or taking their kids to day care,” Brookings senior research analyst Adie Tomer said in a statement.
The majority of “zero-vehicle households” are in cities with advantage of transit. Recently, however, U.S. public transportation has been hit by a double whammy of increased ridership and reduced funding. The American Public Transit Association says that more than a third of transportation systems have hiked fares since January 2010. Nearly half have cut services.
