Tag Archives: Public Transit

How does public transportation impact employment?

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After attending a public transit meeting back in September and listening to complaints regarding service irregularity and inconvenience, I left wondering – how much does that poor service impact employment? Many attendees mentioned that Jamaica’s unreliable public transportation hinders their ability to get from point A to B on time. So I created a survey, and took to Twitter and Facebook to try and find out…

…and in the end, I didn’t find out much. Despite posting my survey on Facebook, tweeting it several times – each time with a different hashtag in an attempt to reach different people – I got a total 12 responses.

My real quest was to find out just how far someone would go for the sake of a job. Given today’s dismal economy, I wanted to know if New Yorkers we’re traveling longer and further for the sake of a paycheck. Ultimately I discovered half of the respondents travel between 30-60 minutes to get to work, and that taking the subway was only slightly more popular than biking (six people rely on the MTA, whereas five count on their own two feet).

Despite the travel time and method, the one thing most respondents agreed on was the commute’s importance. It didn’t matter how far employees had to go, they would travel just about any distance if it meant work. On a scale of one to five, one being “It didn’t matter how far I had to travel – I would have taken it no matter how far the commute was” and five being the opposite, the average score was a two.

The road to…nowhere: employment and public transit in Jamaica

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In Europe, if all roads lead to Rome, in Queens, they all lead to Jamaica. Home to the Long Island Railroad, more than 200,000 passengers pass through Jamaica Station daily, where they can transfer to one of three subway lines or hop on their choice of 18 buses. Up to 360 buses drive along Archer Ave during peak times, according to the NYC Department of Transportation’s Jamaica Bus Improvement Study. And there’s the JFK AirTran.

Commuters wait for the Q11 in Jamaica Queens (photo by Jenny Marc)

But if all roads lead to Jamaica, they don’t seem to lead out. Lack of public transit within both Jamaica itself and the neighboring communities is one of the most common complaints among locals. Inconvenient routes and unreliable schedules make it harder to do just about everything – especially work.

At last month’s Jamaica public transit town hall, a meeting hosted by the non-profit organization Transportation Alternatives, attendees rattled of a list of problems. Last year’s discontinuation of several bus lines is still making transit tough, and the buses that are still there can’t seem to stay on schedule.

Wade McDonald listens to fellow commuters during a breakout session at the Jamaica Public Transit Town Hall. (photo by Jenny Marc)

“Public transportation is supposed to connect the business areas to the residential areas,” explained Michael Murphy, a Transportation Alternatives spokesman. “It’s pretty obvious that employment is more difficult when people can’t get to the jobs that are available.”

Given these tough economic times, people are likely to travel further and longer for the sake of a job. But does there ever come a point when the job is just too far? When getting there is simply too complicated? Take a few seconds to fill out this survey, and help figure out how public transportation is effecting not only unemployment, but employment as well.