Transportation Planning for Access to Jobs in Hartford, St. Louis, and Detroit


Transportation Planning for Access to Jobs in Hartford, St. Louis, and Detroit	.
Melissa Laube, William Lyons, and Philip vanderWilden	Author Info

Abstract

Federal, state, and local welfare reform initiatives may require the development of new and innovative public transportation services to ensure that former welfare recipients have the needed mobility to reach employment opportunities. This report documents job access planning activities undertaken in Hartford, Connecticut, St. Louis, Missouri, and Detroit, Michigan. The experiences of each area offer a number of insights into how the metropolitan transportation planning process might be applied in developing solutions to employment access problems. Specifically, the case studies indicate that a collaborative, interagency planning process is needed to build political support, share information, and assemble necessary funding. Experience in the case study cities also suggests that existing fixed route services, with modest adjustments, may be able to meet most of the need for transportation access to jobs.

Introduction

Recent changes in welfare laws challenge society to offer viable employment opportunities that can replace the family income formerly supplied through public assistance. Meeting this challenge requires prospective employees to have access to available jobs. Over two-thirds of all jobs created in the largest metropolitan areas during the last two decades were in suburbs with poor or non-existent public transit service. From a practical perspective, these jobs are inaccessible for city residents who do not own their own vehicles.

While many metropolitan areas have previously considered "reverse commute" city-to-suburb travel issues, welfare reform instituted through the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 has intensified concerns about access to suburban jobs. Federal welfare reform replaces Aid to Families with Dependent Children with a new Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (TANF), under which Federal block grants are distributed to states with eligible family assistance programs. The TANF program imposes a number of eligibility restrictions, including the limitation of most individual recipient benefits to a time period of 24 consecutive months and five years in total.

In recognition of the key role mobility will play in addressing work requirements resulting from Federal and state welfare reform initiatives, several areas are attempting to address jobs access issues facing former welfare recipients. A proposed U.S. DOT/FTA Access to Jobs program would provide a $600 million source of discretionary funding over 6 years to which states, localities, transit agencies, and social service agencies could apply for planning, capital and operational support of services that help welfare recipients reach employment opportunities. This report presents a series of case studies of planning efforts being undertaken in the Hartford, St. Louis, and Detroit metropolitan areas to improve access to jobs. The studies were conducted in May and June, 1997. These Access to Jobs case studies are intended to provide information that can be applied in other metropolitan areas seeking to develop effective solutions to the job access problem. Topics considered include local conditions; the nature and magnitude of the job access problem; types and characteristics of existing and planned services; anticipated impact of proposed solutions; organizational roles and responsibilities; context of the planning effort within the metropolitan transportation planning process; resource constraints; and planning methods.

Each of the three case study sites provides some distinct approaches to addressing transportation planning for access to jobs. Hartford demonstrates the importance of multi-agency cooperation as a means of identifying employment transportation problems, sharing data and other information to address these problems, and developing a package of appropriate strategies to support job access needs. St. Louis similarly relies on the participation of a broad range of social service agencies to develop creative transportation and employment solutions, and has been effective in accessing funding from a variety of sources outside of traditional state, local, and Federal transportation resources. Among other things, the experience in Detroit suggests that improving long term mobility for those most impacted by welfare reform can best be achieved through a broader focus on transit service innovation.

In all three areas the metropolitan transportation planning process plays a key role in facilitating a collaborative environment for the planning and development of job access strategies. City-to-suburb transportation problems require a regional approach to problem solving, and the involvement of the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) can be critical in forging a regional strategy to job access in support of welfare reform. Additionally, the inclusion of social service, human resource, and economic development agencies, along with the private sector, is consistent with the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) emphasis on an inclusive planning process which ensures that transportation plans and projects are consistent with broader economic and social goals.

This report documents the access to job activities in each of the three areas, and discusses the contributions of the MPO, public transportation operators and other agencies and institutions in the planning and development of employment transportation strategies. The experiences of each area offer a number of insights into how the metropolitan transportation planning process might be applied in developing solutions to employment access problems. Based on these three experiences, several general key findings have emerged. Specific findings pertaining to each study area are provided in case studies contained in this report.

Finding 1: The metropolitan transportation planning process is an effective means for addressing access to jobs problems.

The case study areas are making initial efforts to use the cooperative technical planning process, as envisioned by ISTEA, to meet access to jobs requirements. These efforts are similar to those in areas around the country to apply the process in developing solutions to air pollution, traffic, and other regional transportation problems. This broad regional approach to access to jobs is in contrast to the traditional fragmented approach where there is little coordination between the social service agencies that perform job placement and the public transit operators and metropolitan planning organizations that operate and plan public transit.

The three areas share a regional approach to planning for access to jobs. The Hartford area approached the problem by forming a broad-based coalition that reached a consensus on priorities for operational improvements, a realistic budget, and a shared strategy for pursuing revenues. In Detroit, the Metropolitan Affairs Council (MAC), a regional coalition of business, labor and government, has been at the forefront of coordinating institutional efforts to develop a broad regional approach to transportation to jobs for low income residents. The St. Louis twenty year regional transportation plan, required by ISTEA, identified goals and objectives that are the foundation of the access to jobs effort, and launched the eight-year planning effort to link transportation and labor force development. As welfare reform increases demands for access to jobs, areas might consider how these efforts might be further integrated within the metropolitan transportation planning process.

Finding 2: Comprehensive planning for Access to Jobs requires an inclusive, collaborative coalition of diverse agencies and organizations to develop regional solutions.

The participation of diverse agencies and organizations provides a full range of experience, data, and resources to address planning for access to jobs. Public and private transportation providers, transportation planning agencies, private businesses, and numerous social service agencies that work directly with the affected communities each have unique and vital insights into the complex challenge of moving people from welfare to work. Bringing diverse agencies into a collaborative process not only capitalizes on all available resources, but also can be critical to developing a shared regional commitment to and responsibility for addressing the challenge, building political and grass roots support for proposed solutions, and bringing agencies together that can translate planning into real services. Furthermore, the participation of social service agencies has expanded the range of funding sources that can be applied to addressing jobs access needs.

The organizational approach to forming a coalition can take many different forms depending upon the local situation. In St. Louis and Hartford, the MPO has provided leadership in building a partnership of public agencies, civic organizations, and the business community to address the access to jobs issue. In Detroit, a non-traditional transportation organization such as MAC can facilitate an entrepreneurial approach to planning and project implementation. Regardless of which model is followed, the goal is to create a broad-based coalition of agencies for cooperative planning efforts.

Finding 3: Planning for Access to Jobs goes beyond simply providing transportation to or from work.

The role that transportation can play in welfare reform and access to jobs is important but limited. Planning for access to jobs must address equally important issues such as the availability of job training, the development of job skills, and the location and availability of child care and other critical amenities. Transportation plays a crucial role in linking these elements together which is key to enabling former welfare recipients to successfully secure and retain employment. In each study, transportation is not approached as an isolated issue. A broader system view is essential, as is the involvement of diverse agencies and organizations. Planning for transportation is viewed in connection with job search, skill development, family, and community needs. In Detroit, state social service agency surveys of financial aid recipients reveal that while transportation can be a major stumbling block, not only to employment but to other services including day care, health care and shopping, the availability of these other amenities is equally important. In Hartford and St. Louis, the formation of broad coalitions of diverse agencies acknowledges the need to take a holistic approach to this complex problem. Explicit recognition of the linkages between transportation, job training, community development and land use is being discussed and developed through the planning process and coalition building and will require long-term commitments and partnerships.

Finding 4: Individual transit agencies are successfully addressing welfare to work issues as part of their broader focus on service improvement and innovations.

Transit agencies in the study areas are applying their knowledge of the transit market with a practical approach to problem solving in addressing access to jobs. Underlying this approach are two general principles: any transit innovation or improvement will only succeed if it provides a quality service; and, agencies must support increasing access to jobs by improving transportation that serves the public at large. Transit agencies are designing services to be more accessible and responsive through adjustments to existing services, integration of smaller vehicles into their fleets, automated scheduling and dispatch systems, and reorienting traditional line-haul services.

In Detroit, the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) has developed innovative outreach programs to solicit input from employers as to how to better serve high job growth locations with enhanced transit services. In Hartford, collaboration between the transit agency, employers, and the MPO has helped to identify practical, low cost solutions focusing on the extension or alteration of existing transit services to meet the needs of employees and employers. In St. Louis, where access to jobs has been integrated into the MPO-led long range transportation planning process, integration of transportation with work-force and community development issues has been identified as a key element in the design of any new service. Transit agency planners from each of the case study areas echoed the common theme that service enhancements must make transit services attractive and responsive to all users or the support for financing new and improved measures will not materialize.

Finding 5: Fixed route bus and rail services, with modest adjustments, are expected to meet a substantial share of employment access needs.

Extensions of selected existing bus routes and expansion of the hours of bus service are prominent elements of the job access strategies planned in the case study cities. In St. Louis, stipends for use of buses and light rail services are another important feature of job access programs. Fixed route transit services are projected to provide needed access to the major sources of potential employment in the case study metropolitan areas. In Hartford, technical analysis by the MPO has shown that regular bus routes serve most areas of concentrated employment. While paratransit and vanpooling are viewed as supporting elements in the three regions' job access strategies, fixed route services, modified in some cases to provide improved distribution to employment sites, are anticipated to play a dominant role in meeting the needs of the target market.

While higher rates of economic growth have occured in suburban areas as a result of trends toward decentralization of employment nationwide, a large job market remains in most central cities, even those, like St. Louis, that have experienced significant economic decline. Planners in St. Louis have found that for many mothers living in the central city, working at locations in relatively close proximity to their residences is more realistic than commuting long distances to the suburbs, because of the need to attend to multiple family responsibilities, including pick-up and drop-off of children at child care facilities and school. Investment in urban transportation services that support community and economic development may in many cases be a more cost-effective and practical approach to meeting the needs of low-income workers than creating special dedicated services for long distance commutes to widely dispersed locations.

The size of a metropolitan area is an important factor affecting the feasibility of reverse commuting. In a medium-size metropolitan area like Hartford, for example, a jobs strategy relying on suburban employment may be more viable than in larger cities, where travel times between central cities and the suburbs are longer. Airports are a prime source of jobs in many metropolitan areas and have received focused attention as part of jobs access planning in Hartford. Another important consideration is the relative quality of employment opportunities at different locations. Planners in St. Louis have adopted a dual strategy of pursuing employment opportunities in both the city and the suburbs. The suburban component of this strategy involves the explicit targeting of individual employers that provide "living wages" and good benefits, because the conditions of employment at many potential jobs would not justify long city-to-suburb commutes. Thus, as commuting distances and costs increase, so does the need to target new transportation services at employment centers offering relatively good wages, benefits, and working conditions. Moreover, the emphasis on placing prospective employees in good jobs increases the importance of linking transportation with employment support services, such as training and counseling, to prepare workers with needed basic skills to qualify for targeted jobs.

Finding 6: Technical analysis is critical to understanding the dimensions of employment access needs and addressing those needs effectively.

Defining the market for access to jobs services requires identifying the locations of areas with a significant pool of residents needing employment and matching these to transit routes and to locations that can be expected to provide employment opportunities. MPOs typically have most of the necessary data and technical capabilities for providing this analysis, and may find that supplementary data collection and use of such tools as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and enhanced travel forecasting models can facilitate detailed analysis and help to tailor solutions to well-defined needs. For example, GIS can serve as a tool for organizing and presenting detailed information on the characteristics of employment at locations throughout the metropolitan area, which can be helpful in targeting city-to-suburb transportation services to locations where good jobs are available for former welfare recipients and other low income workers. Hartford demonstrates how available data and shared technical judgment can be used to initiate an access to jobs proposal. In the longer term, this informal type of analysis can be supported with GIS and other technical tools, as resources permit.

In Detroit, technologies are perceived as having the potential to provide new options for improving transit service. Automated vehicle location technology and automated scheduling and dispatch systems are being implemented to provide more flexible and responsive transit services that may play a role in addressing job access needs.

Key Findings from the Hartford Case Study

The leadership of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Capitol Region Council of Governments (CRCOG), in forming and leading the Welfare to Work Transportation Access Group has helped link a broad-based political coalition to the metropolitan transportation planning process. The commitment of coalition members grew from the shared perception that access to jobs is both a major issue for the region and a mutual responsibility. CRCOG's previously established role in "bringing to the table" diverse organizations to work in partnership on regional problems served as a precedent for its leadership in organizing the Work Group. ISTEA has been critical in maintaining and strengthening the effectiveness of the cooperative metropolitan transportation planning process and of the MPO in dealing with regional problems such as access to jobs.
The Hartford area is working to develop practical strategies for dealing with access to employment problems. The combination of workforce development and transportation planning expertise within the Work Group has proved fundamental to the development of services needed to transport former welfare recipients to jobs. Because of the Connecticut Department of Transportation's (ConnDOT's) role as the primary public transit provider and its responsiveness to State policies, its active involvement is an important factor contributing to the effectiveness of the Work Group.
The Hartford area demonstrates a valuable model for completing what might be considered a "first phase" in response to meeting access to employment challenges. This phase consists of building a broad-based political coalition, linking the transportation planning process to that coalition, and developing a consensus on a definition of the problem and practical solutions. Thus far the consensus has developed in support of implementing several low-cost improvements in bus service and requesting additional funds for a two year program. There will be important institutional, financial, and technical challenges ahead as the area deals with possible long term demand for transportation to jobs. This may require greater integration of job access planning within the framework of the metropolitan transportation planning process. For example, it might be necessary to consider financing alternatives or contingencies beyond the time frame of the proposal, the ability to trade-off the costs and benefits of investing in transportation for access to jobs relative to transportation investments to further other regional goals; development of more accurate data and performance measures; and development of more sophisticated analysis techniques, including applications of Geographic Information Systems, to project transportation requirements with a greater level of confidence.
As a short-term planning strategy, the Work Group is attempting to implement logical, incremental, and prioritized improvements that address specific needs or deficiencies. As a result of its participation in the Work Group, the transit operator already has expanded service on several existing bus routes to serve key employment sites and has extended the hours of service on several routes. The Work Group also has assembled a proposal for a two-year job access pilot program for which it has requested funds from the Connecticut State Legislature. This proposal provides for further improvements in fixed route bus service, supplemented by new dial-a-ride services and support for ridesharing programs. CRCOG projects that proposed improvements will serve a major share of former public assistance recipients expected to find jobs. Most of these riders are projected to use fixed route bus services. Planners expect that the types of service needed, route configurations, and areas to be served will change over time. They note the likelihood of future changes in the economy and also project that many users of "reverse commute" transit services will purchase their own private vehicles after they have earned enough income at their jobs.

Key Findings from the St. Louis Case Study

EWGCC has provided leadership in building a partnership of public agencies, civic organizations, and the business community that is working to improve employment opportunities for low income residents of St. Louis. A guiding principle of the St. Louis planning process is the integration of transportation within a broader framework of employment, family, and community support services. The inclusion of community resources planning among EWGCC's basic program responsibilities has made it possible for the MPO to engage in a wide range of workforce development activities.
The St. Louis area provides a useful model for approaching the access to jobs problem through the metropolitan transportation planning process. The foundation for the St. Louis access to jobs effort is provided in Transportation Redefined, the regional Transportation Plan adopted by EWGCC in September 1994. In response to the goals and objectives identified in the Plan, EWGCC launched an eight-year planning effort linking transportation and labor force development.
The EWGCC has taken an entrepreneurial approach to planning and project implementation. The planning effort attracts significant support from private foundations and State human service agencies. Expansion of the current pilot programs to serve large numbers of participants would require substantial additional funding, supplemented with private support on a much larger scale. State human service and economic development agencies and the private sector are potential sources for some of the necessary future funding.
The experience of participants in the St. Louis planning effort suggests that commuting to work at widely dispersed suburban locations may not be realistic for many mothers living in the central city. Planners view the Center for Mobility to Work project, which will place job seekers with employers in the urban corridor served by the MetroLink light rail line and integrated bus routes, as a promising alternative. The corridor is a major source of potential jobs, with over 10,000 businesses and 240,000 employees. This project will use existing transportation services to best advantage and provide shorter commutes for mothers with young children. Stipends will be provided for the use of project participants on the regional transit system.
As a general principle, EWGCC supports increasing access to employment opportunities by improving transportation that serves the public at large. Special services for a targeted market, such as welfare recipients, are created only when regular public transit service is impractical. In seeking to meet employment access needs, a wide range of options is consistent with EWGCC's approach, including extensions of bus routes, neighborhood shuttles, and land use strategies that limit tendencies towards employment decentralization.
Several transportation system improvements have been introduced or are in the process of being implemented through the St. Louis Bridges to Work Program. These include: (1) extensions of major bus routes to serve additional employment sites and provide longer hours of service to accommodate work shifts ending at 10:00 PM; (2) a planned circulator van service to and from several transit transfer points. Overall, the regional job access strategy relies to a significant degree on fixed route bus and rail transit. The target goal for the first year of the Bridges to Work pilot program is to place 425 participants in jobs with selected employers providing "living wages" and prospects for stable employment

Key Findings from the Detroit Case Study

Non-traditional transportation partners fill an entrepreneurial role in developing institutional partnerships and building consensus to address access to jobs issues. MAC works closely with the MPO and local transit agencies on transportation issues affecting the chronically jobless in Detroit's inner city. MAC, in cooperation with the Greater Detroit Chamber of Commerce, recently sponsored the development of a Transit Choice proposal, which is a new vision for improving transit service in Greater Detroit through a future unified regional transportation system. MAC will play a key role in attempts to build consensus for Transit Choice with DDOT, SMART, and other local agencies.
Individual transit agencies are incorporating welfare to work issues as part of their broader focus on service improvement and innovation. Both DDOT and SMART acknowledge that transit services must be market driven, flexible and responsive to changing customer needs. Serving welfare recipients who are transitioning to work is part of that changing need. DDOT and SMART are focusing on making transit services more accessible through a combination of smaller vehicles, automated scheduling and dispatch, and reorienting traditional line-haul services. However, according to transit agency planners, service enhancements must make transit services attractive and responsive to all users or the support for financing new and improved measures will not materialize.
State welfare reform and state social service agencies recognize that ensuring transportation access is a critical link in the job training, employment, and retention effort. The State FIA and MESA recognize that they must work closely with local transit agencies like DDOT and SMART to ensure that transportation is available for its clients to support the transition from welfare to work. FIA surveyed financial aid recipients to identify the major stumbling blocks to employment and consistently found that inadequate access to reliable and efficient transportation --- not only to work but to other services including day care, health care and shopping --- is a key barrier.
Area transit agencies have benefited from the funding flexibility offered by ISTEA. The flexibility of STP and CMAQ funds under ISTEA has been important in providing additional funding to the fiscally strapped transit agency in Detroit. Through the metropolitan planning process, the MPO has programmed portions of these funds to enable DDOT to purchase of more flexible and responsive small buses and vans. These vehicles will be used primarily for elderly transport and improved access to jobs through enhanced services and links to the existing transportation network.
Access to jobs can be addressed in the transportation planning process. According to SEMCOG and MAC planning staff, the MPO planning process and its constituent member agencies can have an important impact on addressing the access to jobs through the development of related goals, objectives and evaluation criteria within the planning process. However, staff recognize that transportation is only one element in the transition of people from welfare to work; while the planning process can have an impact, solutions must be community based.
Technology plays a key role in improving transit planning for access to jobs and providing for more flexible, demand responsive transit services. SMART and DDOT, with assistance from SEMCOG, are using GIS and the merging of data bases from multiple sources to identify the location of transit dependent populations, child care facilities, and potential job locations, and to help ensure that transit services are adequately servicing those destinations. SMART, DDOT and MAC are implementing new technologies including automated vehicle location devices and automated scheduling and dispatch systems to enhance the transit agencies' ability to provide more flexible, responsive services to the traveling public.

Melissa Laube
William Lyons
Philip vanderWilden

U.S. Department of Transportation
Research and Special Programs Administration
Volpe National Transportation Systems Center

Copies of the Access to Jobs case studies can be requested from the Volpe Center by fax at (617) 494-3260 or by E-mail at: vanderwild@volpe2.dot.gov. Questions regarding the USDOT/FTA's Access to Jobs initiative can be directed to Sean Libberton at (202) 366-0055 or by E-mail at sean.libberton@fta.dot.gov. FTA's website can be reached at the following internet address: http://www.fta.dot.gov.