A transit desert is an area with limited transportation supply, typically combining inadequate public transportation service with poor infrastructure for walking, biking or driving as well. The concept was introduced in 2013 by researchers Junfeng Jiao and Maxwell Dillivan, who adapted the desert metaphor already used to describe gaps in food, banking and book access to describe transportation access instead. Contributing causes include suburban sprawl, segregationist land-use policies, poor urban planning and development patterns that concentrate transportation investment in central business districts while leaving other areas underserved. Living in a transit desert is associated with diminished job prospects and economic mobility, worse health outcomes and limited access to essential services, and research has found that nearly all United States cities contain transit desert areas, though their own central business districts typically escape the classification.
Facts
Core ConcernAn area where public transit and walking or biking infrastructure both fall short of local travel demand. 1 FAQs
Who coined the term transit desert and how do researchers measure one?
Researchers Junfeng Jiao and Maxwell Dillivan coined it, first in print in 2013, modeled on the food desert concept, and it is usually measured by mapping where transit demand exceeds transit supply.
Transit desert describes an area with limited transportation supply, combining inadequate public transit with poor walking, biking or driving infrastructure. Researchers Junfeng Jiao and Maxwell Dillivan coined the term, which first appeared in print in 2013 and was developed from the earlier idea of a food desert. The most common measurement method uses a geographic information system to estimate transit supply and demand for an area and subtracts one from the other to find where the gap is largest.
Connections
Exemplifies
A geographically bounded instance of the broader transport-divide pattern of unequal access
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Transit Desert
WikipediaHistory section
The idea of transit deserts was coined by Junfeng Jiao and Maxwell Dillivan, first appearing in print in 2013.
Lead section
Transit deserts are generally characterized by poor public transportation options and possibly poor bike, sidewalk, or road infrastructure.
In Group: Transport Equity Concepts, Lead sentence
A transit desert is an area with limited transportation supply. Developed from the concept of food deserts, various methods have been proposed to measure transit deserts.
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