What it means to live without regular access to safe, reliable, affordable transportation
Imagine not being able to go where you want to go when you need to because you don’t have regular access to safe, affordable transportation due to a lack of resources. Such resources include money for gas or bus fare, friends who can provide rides, or being healthy enough to walk. It’s called transportation insecurity and it’s a reality for millions of people across the Unites States and beyond.
Alexandra Murphy, associate director for social science research at Mcity, has focused her work on better understanding transportation insecurity, including everything from how many people – and who – experience it, to how it compromises individual well-being.
Mcity has published a new white paper based on research co-led by Murphy and first author Lydia Wileden, a University of Michigan alum and assistant research professor at the University of Connecticut, that explores transportation insecurity in the city of Detroit. A main finding of the research is that more than a third of Detroit residents (36%) can’t get from place to place in a safe or timely manner.
They measured this with a tool created by Murphy and her team called the Transportation Security Index (TSI). One aim of the index is to help local governments plan transportation investments, similar to the way food security indices clarify what kinds of food resources are needed and where.
A report issued earlier this month by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine recommended the use of transportation security indices to guide local investments in transportation resources, naming the U-M index as a good example. Detroit’s transportation insecurity is more than twice the national average of 17% (established in 2022).
Read the white paper, “Transportation Insecurity in the City of Detroit.”
Murphy discusses what the TSI can reveal about issues facing Detroit and other U.S. cities in this Q&A.