Is Transit Important for Single Parents? Evidence from Maryland

Increased public attention has been drawn to the limited mobility, accessibility, and transportation resources among single-parent families. However, the evidence is unclear yet how important transit is for single parents. That is, whether single parents tend to reside in transit-rich neighborhoods and whether this tendency is related to income and car ownership. This study examined the association between public transit usage/transit ridership (e.g., number of transit commuters and station-level rail transit ridership) and the number of single-parent households based on statewide datasets in Maryland, the United States. The results from zero-inflated negative binomial and ordinary least squares regression analyses consistently indicated positive associations between transit usage and the concentration of single-parent households. Meanwhile, the income per capita is not statistically significant for the number of transit commuters, and the number of zero-car households does not have a consistent impact on the transit ridership. The results implied that the socioeconomic status and car ownership may not be the only reasons of single parents’ reliance on public transit, and car donation programs may not be as helpful as people expected. While making transportation policies and providing assistance, transit agencies should also consider the unique travel pattern of single-parent families caused by other factors, for example, child-care duties and time constraint.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABE70 Standing Committee on Women's Issues in Transportation.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Wang, Sicheng
  • Xu, Yanfeng
  • Liu, Chao
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 98th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2019-1-13 to 2019-1-17
• Date: 2019

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 8p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Parents; Public transit; Regression analysis; Residential location; Ridership
• Uncontrolled Terms: Single parents
• Geographic Terms: Maryland
• Subject Areas: Public Transportation; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01698279
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 19-02885
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 1 2019 3:51PM