$10,000 Extra? The Transportation Tab for Sprawling ‘Hoods in 20 Metros

Source: ##http://www.cnt.org/## Center for Neighborhood Technology## via ##http://bettercities.net/article/living-sprawl-cost-thousands-extra-year-17841## Better Cities and Towns##

$10,860 in New York City. $5,694 in St. Louis. $4,199 in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

That’s what it will cost you, on average, in additional transportation costs to live in a sprawling, car-dependent neighborhood over one that is well-connected and transit-rich. That’s according to a new analysis by the Center for Neighborhood Technology, produced for Better Cities and Towns.

CNT analyzed 20 “representative” metropolitan areas. Each area was divided into seven quartiles ranging from most walkable and transit-friendly to the most disconnected and car-dependent. The difference? Well, it adds up.

Transportation costs varied widely from a low of $5,053 in New York City’s most well-connected neighborhoods, to a high of almost $17,807 in Olympia, Washington’s low-density suburbs.

Some of the most striking differences in transportation costs were between cities with extremely vibrant urban cores and strong transit systems — New York, Washington, Boston — and those without. Notice that residents of average neighborhoods in Atlanta, Georgia pay $3,337 more in transportation costs annually than those from New York City’s comparable neighborhoods.

Even though many of these transportation bargain cities are known for having relatively high housing costs, the analysis showed that their residents of more location-efficient neighborhoods come out ahead in every MSA.  In the most walkable ‘hoods in all 20 areas, combined housing and transportation costs accounted for 30-51 percent of area median household income. In the most sprawling neighborhoods — the least efficient — these same costs ate up 50 to 75 percent of the average household’s budget, according to CNT.

Notably, in some poor-transit, especially sprawling areas, transportation costs were well in excess of annual housing costs. In an especially remarkable case — Fayetteville, Arkansas’s distant suburbs — transportation costs were more than double those of housing costs.

This research builds in an earlier study from CNT that found combined housing and transportation costs were rising faster in exurban areas than urban. No wonder the exurbs are losing their luster!

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

High Transportation Costs Make a Lot of HUD Housing Unaffordable

By Angie Schmitt |
Rental assistance from HUD isn’t enough to make the cost of living affordable when the subsidies go toward housing in car-dependent areas, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Texas and the University of Utah. The study evaluated transportation costs for more than 18,000 households that receive HUD rental subsidies, estimating that nearly half of recipients have to spend more […]

The Cost of Sprawl on Low-Income Families

By Aaron Donovan |
Via the Manhattan Institute’s new blog, Streetsblog learns of a pdf-formatted report entitled A Heavy Load: The Combined Housing and Transportation Burdens of Working Famillies, which looks at the housing and transportation expenses paid by lower income families in a number of cities. The report, published by the Center for Housing Policy, a K Street […]

Are There Any Affordable Cities Left in America?

By Angie Schmitt |
Are Washington, San Francisco, and New York the most affordable American cities? A new report from the New York-based Citizen’s Budget Commission [PDF], which made the rounds at the Washington Post and CityLab, argues that if you consider the combined costs of housing and transportation, the answer is yes. But a closer look at the data casts […]

Affordable Transportation and Affordable Housing Need to Go Hand-in-Hand

By Angie Schmitt |
Rents continue to rise in cities across the U.S., and Pittsburgh is no exception. Noting the escalating housing costs in walkable neighborhoods, Alex Shewczyk at Bike Pittsburgh looks at how transportation and housing policy can coordinate to make places more affordable. We know from resources like the Center for Neighborhood Technology’s Housing+Transportation Index that transportation costs are a large household expense […]

Suburban Poverty and the Transit Connection

By Sarah Goodyear |
Today on the Streetsblog Network, Yonah Freemark of The Transport Politic looks at the new Brookings Institution report on suburban poverty levels and the connection to future transportation planning in those regions. Freemark, who recently wrote about how the city of Paris is extending its transit infrastructure to its traditionally lower-income suburbs, points out that […]

How Do "Best Cities for Families" Rankings Get It So Wrong?

By Angie Schmitt |
City rankings that purport to reveal the best place to raise a family are ubiquitous. Where I live, in northeast Ohio, it’s the homogeneous, sprawling suburbs that tend to be very proud of their positions on these lists. Bradley Calvert at Family Friendly Cities examined the key criteria used by Apartment List to develop its “best […]