Returning congestion and transit reductions lead to lower job accessibility nationwide

Access to job opportunities declined in large U.S. cities as economic and transportation conditions have continued to evolve in the COVID era, according to new research from the Accessibility Observatory at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Transportation Studies.

Since 2014, the annual Access Across America (AAA) study has used comprehensive walking, biking, transit and auto travel data to analyze the sustainability of transportation options for residents of major urban areas. The study defines accessibility as the number of jobs that a typical worker can reach, on average, within 30 minutes. Typically, land use and transportation networks only change gradually from year to year, but—following the trend from 2021—the 2022 report illustrates some of the ways that Americans are still dealing with aftershocks from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

An interactive map of the findings and a webinar recording discussing findings from the 2022 AAA report are available on the Center for Transportation Studies website.

The report found generally lower access to jobs in 2022 than in the previous year for residents using biking, transit and automobiles. In particular, all of the 50 most populous urban areas in the U.S. saw reduced access to jobs during the morning peak by driving. The highest reductions were seen in places where congestion had increased the most. Compared to 2021, the typical worker in the Los Angeles region lost access to 1.2 million jobs within a 30-minute drive—a 40% reduction. Similar patterns were observed in Boston (33% reduction) and Atlanta (28% reduction), among other cities. These drastic changes show the impact of the return of traffic, magnified by the unusually high job accessibility by auto that occurred during the first 21 months of the pandemic.

“Travel habits are sticky, and during COVID it was unusually easy to travel across many urban areas by car, which wasn’t sustainable,” said Andrew Owen, a senior researcher for the Accessibility Observatory and lead author of the report. “What follows is increased demand as people get used to being able to make trips quickly. Then, those travel times become longer as more people make the same choice. Reduced accessibility due to congestion is simply the consequence of this negative feedback loop.”

The 2022 AAA report includes a walking report, which is the first national calculation of job walkability since 2014. Access was highly variable within urban areas, with some residents having very high accessibility by walk or roll, but most having very little. In the New York City urban area, for example, the average resident would expect to reach fewer than 1% of regional jobs in a 30-minute walk or roll. Additionally, research showed that pedestrian accessibility can vary widely between lower- and higher-wage workers.

“We often hear that walkable areas are signs of high income or gentrification, but travel behavior shows that lower-wage workers are more likely to walk to work,” said Shirley Liu, a researcher in the Accessibility Observatory and co-author of the report. “The data showed that in places like Minneapolis, Baltimore and Cleveland, lower-wage residents have better connections by walking or rolling to jobs in the city than higher-wage workers do.”

The report also showed a reduction in transit service in urban areas in 2022 led to a marked reduction in job accessibility, which raises questions about the financial sustainability of modes of transportation that provide critical access to jobs.

The Access Across America study is sponsored by the National Accessibility Evaluation pooled-fund study—a multiyear effort led by the Minnesota Department of Transportation and supported by partners including the Federal Highway Administration, 11 additional state DOTs and the Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities.