How Vehicle Access Enables Low-Income Households to Live in Better Neighborhoods

ABSTRACT

Transportation influences residential location choices generally, but low-income households often face unique constraints because of a lack of access to automobiles. This article examines how vehicle access influences the type of neighborhoods in which low-income households are able to secure housing following a move to a new neighborhood. We rely on data from the Moving to Opportunity program to estimate locational attainment models, including a wide range of variables capturing various dimensions of neighborhood opportunity. Our findings suggest that auto access enables low-income households to secure housing in neighborhoods that exhibit a wide range of positive neighborhood attributes, including lower poverty rates, lower housing vacancy rates, higher median household income, higher labor-force participation, and higher adult high school graduation rates.

KEYWORDS:

• Moving to Opportunity
• geography of opportunity
• Housing Choice Voucher
• locational attainment
• automobiles
• HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development [Sustainable Communities Research Grant Program].

Notes on contributors

Jae Sik Jeon

Jae Sik Jeon is a Research Analyst at Sage Computing and affiliate of the National Center for Smart Growth, University of Maryland at College Park.

Casey Dawkins

Casey Dawkins is Professor and Director of the Urban Studies and Planning & Urban and Regional Planning and Design Programs at the University of Maryland at College Park.

Rolf Pendall

Rolf Pendall is Professor and Head of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.