Poster 50: This project examines how inequity in access to transportation affects the low-income population's access to jobs. Spatial mismatch theory suggests that distance acts as the primary barrier to employment for low-income people. However, more recently, scholars have suggested that it is not only distance, but also the mode of transportation that influences job accessibility for low-income people. Using the specific case of low-income population in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, the analysis differentiates between spatial and modal mismatches. The gravity model is used to calculate the accessibility index at the neighborhood scale for the D.C. population, which is mapped using GIS to determine the geography of job accessibility based on different modes of transportation (private automobile vs. public transportation).
