United States Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration
Abstract
This report presents perceptual, mobility and employment outcomes self-reported by 573 users
of 26 transportation services funded by the Job Access and Reverse Commute (JARC) program.
The respondents were predominantly low income with 42 percent reporting 2008 personal
incomes less than 10,000andtwo−thirdsoftherespondentsearning20,000 or less for the
same year. Nearly half the respondents have no household vehicles. Nearly three in five
respondents reported that their travel has become reliable and convenient after using the
services. Workers using the services have benefitted from overall reductions in the cost of
commuting to work.
Close to 94 percent rated the service as being important or very important in keeping their jobs.
Respondents also self-reported that the services allowed them to access a job with better pay or
better working conditions, and to improve their skills. Both median hourly wages and median
weekly earnings are reported to have increased since using the service for those workers who
use the service to commute to work and were employed in the one-month period prior to
starting use of the service. Alternative reasons may exist for these wage changes, including
overall changes in the economic conditions of the locations where the services operate, as well
as changes in the personal conditions of the workers that are unrelated to the JARC program in
the period between starting use of the service and the time of the survey, such as graduation
from job-training or school, residential relocation and so on.
Because of the lack of a probability sample of services, the results cannot be generalized to the
entire JARC program. Detailed case studies of the 26 services yield insights into the types of
benefits that are being provided overall in these cases and the planning and programmatic
environment within which they operate