Assessing Job Accessibility and Equity by Public Transport in the Four Largest Cities of Ohio

Abstract

Abstract Accessibility is the ease of reaching opportunities that have become a critical indicator and common goal in many transportation plans. Improving job accessibility can increase the probability of reducing unemployment and commutes of private vehicles. Therefore, this study aims to measure the job accessibility of Ohio's four largest cities (Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Toledo) within 30- and 45-min time thresholds and identifies the job accessibility condition among the vulnerable census tracts as they are the deprival groups who need good access to avail their jobs. Therefore, it also evaluates the vertical equity among the four cities. The results found that public transportation provides uneven distribution of job accessibility among four cities. All four cities can only meet around 27% of the population's job accessibility demand using public transport. If the travel time increases, job accessibility conditions improve using public transportation. However, most census tracts with high employment accessibility are located near the downtown areas of the four cities. Though Columbus is the largest city in Ohio, 47% of the population does not get good job accessibility using public transport and also cannot meet the demand of vulnerable census tracts. Furthermore, the equity gap is also high for Columbus. The study found inequality among the cities, and most of the city's Gini values are close to 1. It indicates that access to services (jobs) using public transport is not distributed properly, and disadvantaged people are not benefited. The study suggests that the improvement of public transit facilities is essential in the cities. Hence, the transportation authorities and other relevant organizations should focus on providing an equitable distribution of public transit facilities for availing services.