Integrating transit and TNC services to improve job accessibility: Scenario analysis with an equity lens

Abstract

With the rapid growth of Transportation Network Company (TNC) services and the continued decline of transit ridership, existing research has proposed and some transit agencies have implemented programs that integrate transit and TNC services. This paper expands the research area to examine the equity implications of such integrations, focusing on job accessibility improvements for low-income workers. We develop an analytical framework that compares improvements in accessibility to jobs under different hypothetical scenarios in which TNC travel serves as the last-mile connection of transit services. Using the city of Chicago for the case study, this research confirms that such transit-TNC integration increases job accessibility for all low-income workers throughout the city, but it also pinpoints nuanced differences in the accessibility improvements among workers of different races, ethnicities, and sexes during peak and off-peak hours.