Public transportation systems act like arteries carrying people from home to work or to essential services such as hospitals, schools, banks and grocery stores.
But not all communities have access to public transportation, leaving residents reliant on private vehicles or struggling to find transit. The lack of access to public transit deepens socioeconomic divides, limits access to environmentally sustainable transportation and cuts off connections to essential services.
Those areas with limited availability of public transportation are known as “transit deserts.” To tackle the problem, we need to first identify where these transit deserts are located.
To that end, we analyzed 74,139 transit stops across 27,014 zip codes of the United States. We estimate roughly 119 million Americans live in transit-scarce areas where there are zero public transportation stops in a zip code. That represents about 36% of the U.S. population.
For each county indicated in the map of the U.S., using Mastercard SpendingPulse™ data, which estimates total retail sales across all payment types, we calculated the dependence each county has on fuel as a proportion of total spend. Areas that tend to have less access and reliance on public transportation.
What Mastercard is doing to fight transit deserts
Increasing financial inclusion is central to Mastercard’s mission of powering economies and empowering people. One of the most critical components in increasing financial inclusion is giving all residents access to transportation that ensures equal access to education, labor markets and healthcare. We are committed to working with transit authorities and operators to provide payment options for all types of riders, from the banked to the unbanked and from full-fare riders to those receiving concessions or discounts.
Additionally, our micromobility efforts include a focus on eliminating barriers to entry for first and last mile transportation. Together with our partners, we have launched tap-and-ride shared bicycles across the globe to promote easily accessible, sustainable, interoperable urban mobility.
To better understand the structure of the local economies that have access to public transportation versus those that do not, we analyze zip codes with at least one transit stop versus those with none. We further split these zip codes into high-income and low-income areas. Here's what we found:
Areas with availability of public transportation tend to have higher populations and population densities, more availability of jobs and a more educated population that tends to have higher incomes. Transit-scarce areas and transit deserts by contrast have less population density, less access to jobs, a less educated population and lower incomes. In addition, people living in transit-scarce areas or transit deserts tend to spend more on costlier and less sustainable modes of transportation.
Affordability : The lowest-income areas in transit scarce areas tend to spend roughly twice of their consumption on automotive fuel. In other words, this portion of the population – the most vulnerable – has little choice but to rely on the most expensive and most environmentally detrimental type of transportation. By comparison, populations in zip codes with at least one transit stop spend considerably less. Besides having a greater exposure towards fluctuations in energy prices, these trends put the lowest income populations in transit deserts at a comparative disadvantage from a perspective of economic opportunity.
There is a significant gap in income levels between zip codes in transit deserts and zip codes with access to public transit. The median household income of zip codes with public transit was $74,405 per year, versus $59,424 per year in transit deserts.
To further test this divergence, we looked at the zip codes falling into the top 10th percentile of income earners for both transit deserts and areas with access to public transit. Here, we found that the gap remains – the wealthiest zip codes with access to public transit have a median household income of about $135,624 versus $98,018 in the wealthiest areas without access to public transit.
There is also a large gap in educational attainment between areas with access and without access to public transportation. On average, about 20.7% of the population have at least a bachelor’s degree in the zip codes with access to public transit. By comparison, about 13.7% of the population have a bachelor’s degree or higher in areas without access to public transit. This suggests that public transportation availability may help facilitate greater access to educational opportunities.
To test this divergence further, we looked at the lowest income-earning zip codes in transit deserts compared to the lowest income-earning zip codes with access to public transit. We found that the low-income areas with access to public transit tend to have better educational attainment, too. On average, about 9.3% of the population in low-income areas with access to public transit have a bachelor’s degree, versus 7.7% of the population without access to public transit.
We found that the areas with availability of public transportation tend to have higher populations, more availability of jobs and a more educated population with higher incomes.
With better access to public transportation, one portion of the U.S. population will have easier and more cost-effective access to critical infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and grocery stores. On the other hand, people living in transit scarce areas – especially in the lowest income areas – pay for more costly types of transportation, putting them at a comparative disadvantage in terms of economic opportunity and financial inclusion.
Policymakers may want to consider our insights to prioritize public transit expansion in underserved areas, addressing economic and social disparities.
Statement from MTA Spokesperson Eugene Resnick
“The MTA continues its commitment to strengthening and expanding transit services across the New York metropolitan area to make public transportation more accessible to everyone regardless of location or socioeconomic status. We are currently expanding the Second Avenue Subway to East Harlem and constructing four new rail stations in a historically transit-deprived area of the Bronx to provide riders easy access to Penn Station, both of which will connect communities to all the employment and leisure opportunities that the Central Business District has to offer. Additionally, the Authority’s contactless fare payment system provides customers with an easy way to tap to pay their fare across the system.”
We gathered data from various official sources and aggregated and anonymized Mastercard transaction data, including data points around:
About the Mastercard Economics Institute
Mastercard Economics Institute launched in 2020 to analyze macroeconomic trends through the lens of the consumer. A team of economists, analysts and data scientists draws on Mastercard insights - including Mastercard SpendingPulse™ - and third-party data to deliver regular reporting on economic issues for key customers, partners and policymakers.
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