Conditions and Performance Chapter Listing

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Introduction

Summary

Measuring Mobility

The Role of Income

Role of Age

Role of Gender

Role of Race and Hispanic Status

Role of Race and Hispanic Status

The influence of race, income and geography adds another dimension to the discussion of mobility. As Steven Polzin (University of South Florida) notes, African-Americans and Hispanics have historically spent more time at lower levels of comfort, reliability, security and safety to achieve the same level of mobility as Whites. Among Whites, 88 percent of travel is via automobile. The com-parable share for Hispanics in 1995 was 83 percent and for African-Americans 76 percent. We've looked at these differences in terms of the ability to access a wide range of goods and services, and to be able to take advantage of job opportunities in a wider radius from home. How much of these differences are due to race and how much are due to the lower average household income of the African-American population?

When controlling for income, the differences are still very apparent by race as shown in Exhibit 1-8. African-Americans travel less and in a smaller area around their homes than Whites in the same income group—overall taking 15 percent fewer trips and traveling almost a quarter fewer miles per person per day.

Exhibit 1-8

Travel Differences by African-Americans and Whites in the Same Income Class

African-Americans average 1,421 annual trips per person, or 3.9 trips a day, compared to 1,602 annual and 4.4 daily trips for Whites. As compared to Whites, African-Americans make six times the number of annual transit trips (95 vs.15) and almost twice the number of annual walk trips (131 vs. 72).

Similar patterns are shown in the comparison of travel by Hispanics and non-Hispanics. Hispanics are twice as likely to use transit as non-Hispanics (48 annual trips vs. 25), and Hispanics make 50 percent more walking trips than non-Hispanics (126 vs. 80). The differences in private vehicle use are slight, with Hispanics making 83 percent of their trips by private vehicle, versus 88 percent for non-Hispanics.

The incidence of households without a vehicle is lower for Hispanics than non-Hispanics, and much lower for African-Americans than the general population (see Exhibit 1-9). While 14.9 percent of all low-income households (below $15,000) do not own a vehicle, this increases to 30.4 percent of low-income Hispanic households and 46.5 percent of low-income African-American households.

Exhibit 1-9

Percent of Households Without a Vehicle