Why public transportation is important in reducing the gap between rich and poor

If there is no or poor public transportation, low-income people without a car have significantly fewer options when looking for a job, and their income also decreases significantly.

Not only that, but the rent is cheap enough to make it possible to live with a reduced income.

Because you have to live near a limited number of jobs where you can commute even with poor public transportation,

Low-income people are excessively concentrated in one area of the city, forming a ghetto isolated from the outside world, and are excluded from public services such as security and hygiene.

And since no one often pays attention to slums that are isolated from the outside world,

The standard of living worsens further as hateful facilities within the city are pushed out to ghettoized low-income residential areas.

As the standard of living worsens, labor productivity falls further, which then falls into a vicious cycle of falling income or becoming unemployed.

The place where this phenomenon is most severe is the United States.

This is because, in the United States, urban planning for suburban residential complexes with private cars in mind was very actively implemented before and after World War II.

(It was after World War II that the Interstate Expressway, a national transportation network with automobiles in mind, was built.)

In other words, from the start of urban planning, commuting to work was difficult without a car.

Because of this, after World War II, most of the poor lived around the original old city center, and only the middle class who could afford to buy a car moved out to the suburbs.

Then, starting in the 80s and 90s, in some cities, the middle- and high-income classes left suburban areas that had fallen due to the decline of the manufacturing industry and returned to urban areas.

There is a trend for knowledge-based industries other than manufacturing (IT industry, finance industry, etc.) to establish headquarters or branches in urban areas.

As a result, the poor are unable to withstand the skyrocketing rents in the city center and are pushed out to suburban areas designed with the premise of owning a car.

Ultimately, due to poor public transportation, in extreme cases, workers cannot even commute to work and end up being kicked out of the labor market.

(This phenomenon of rising rents and pushing out native residents is commonly referred to as gentrification.)

Of course, this is not a phenomenon that has occurred in all cities in the United States, and the actual individual aspects are much more complex.

It is true that America’s poor public transportation greatly contributes to the deepening gap between the rich and the poor.

If you want to know more about urban changes and urban problems in the 21st century,

A book by renowned American scholar Richard Florida