Access Across America: Transit 2023

Access to jobs by transit decreased in most of the largest US metros

Access Across America: Transit 2023 measures access to jobs by public transit for each of the most populous US metropolitan areas and also shows the change in accessibility for each metro since the previous year. In 2023, nearly 75% of the top 50 US urban areas experienced a year-over-year decline in transit access to jobs.

In contrast to the declines in auto access, which are driven by travel behavior, the declines in transit accessibility are influenced by the frequency and speed of transit service provided to an urban area, along with economic changes like the number and placement of jobs. Challenges like hiring of drivers and mechanics, and funding uncertainty from long-term loss of fares, have led some agencies to pare back service, which results in lower accessibility even where job growth has continued.

The top ten metro areas for access to jobs by transit remained unchanged from the previous year. Among them, only San Jose experienced an increase in accessibility to jobs via transit, slightly more than 1%. Chicago followed with a slight decrease of 0.3%. Approximately 17,866 jobs were accessible by a 30-minute transit trip in San Jose and 42,886 jobs in Chicago. By comparison, about 159,690 jobs were accessible by a 30-minute transit trip in the New York metro area, which decreased by 5% but still remained the leader for access to jobs by transit.

Highlights in the year over year changes included 6% increases in Kansas City and 4% in Phoenix. Still, these improvements are from low baselines: the average worker in Phoenix could reach 28,000 jobs in a 40-minute transit commute, a meager 1.3% of the jobs available in the region. Kansas City’s typical transit commuter would reach a similar 1.2% of jobs, just 13,000 of the 1.05 million job opportunities in the region.

Public transit accounted for an estimated 5% of commuting trips in the United States before the COVID-19 pandemic, making it the second most widely used commute mode after driving.

This annual nationwide data is used to guide key transportation and land-use policy decisions. State departments of transportation, metropolitan planning organizations and transit agencies can apply the data to performance goals related to congestion, reliability and sustainability. In addition, detailed accessibility evaluation can help in selecting between project alternatives and prioritizing investments.