The Hiawatha Light Rail line in the southern Metro has provided low-wage workers with better access to jobs, according to a new U of M study.
Photo courtesy of Steven Vance/Flickr.com
University of Minnesota study finds Hiawatha light-rail line has significantly improved job access for low-wage workers
Contacts: Patty Mattern, University News Service, mattern@umn.edu, (612) 624-2801
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (03/30/2010) —The Hiawatha light-rail line provides significant benefits for transit-dependent low-wage workers and improves overall transportation equity in the Twin Cities, according to new University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies research.
By focusing on the impacts of the Hiawatha light-rail line, which runs between downtown Minneapolis and its southern suburbs, the study’s authors attempted to uncover whether Twin Cities transitways effectively connect low-wage workers with suitable job opportunities. Low-wage workers are defined as workers with average monthly earnings no higher than $1,200.
The study found that following the opening of the Hiawatha line in 2004, the number of low-wage jobs accessible by 30 minutes of transit travel in morning peak hours increased by 14,000 or 50 percent in light-rail station areas and by 4,000 or 25 percent in areas with direct, light-rail-connecting bus routes.
In addition, low-wage workers have increasingly been locating near station areas. Hiawatha and related transit upgrades are estimated to have drawn 907 low-wage workers into the Hiawatha station areas. Out of the 907 relocated workers, 78 percent moved to areas near the Cedar-Riverside, Franklin Avenue and Lake Street-Midtown stations.
Likewise, the number of low-wage employers has increased near station areas, with Hiawatha and related transit upgrades having, by estimate, brought in more than 5,000 low-wage jobs into areas near downtown Minneapolis and suburban Bloomington light-rail stations.
“Public transportation plays an important role in addressing poverty, unemployment and equal opportunity goals,” says Yingling Fan, the study’s principal investigator and an assistant professor in the university’s Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. “Increasingly, often entry-level job opportunities are located away from low-wage workers. However, these workers often don’t have access to vehicles for commuting, or they struggle to afford them. These factors make low-wage workers more transit-dependent than ever before.”
The study area included the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan region and used data from several sources, including the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) database, the U.S. Census Bureau and Metro Transit.
For more information, visit www.cts.umn.edu/Research/Featured/Transitways.