🚍Annual Travel Time Disparity by Race and Ethnicity

Goal A: Getting Around the Region

🚍 Black-White bus commuter disparity: 50 hours (14 hours shorter than in 2016)

🚍 Latinx-White bus commuter disparity: 24 hours (14 hours longer than in 2016)

🚇 Black-White subway commuter disparity: 46 hours (15 hours longer than in 2016)

🚇 Latinx-White subway commuter disparity: -5 hours (2 hours longer than in 2016)

🚘 Black-White auto commuter disparity: 11 hours (10 hours longer than in 2016)

🚘 Latinx-White auto commuter disparity: -16 hours (11 hours longer than in 2016)

Commuting is rarely anyone's favorite part of the day. The more time spent on the way to or from work, the less time is available for family, friends, and recreation. In our region, 30 percent of transit commuters spend more than an hour getting to work. And as with many aspects of the region’s transportation system, commuters of color generally endure even longer travel times than their White counterparts.

In 2016, MAPC released Sustainable Transportation Indicators, which included a travel time disparity indicator that caught the attention of transit and racial justice advocates around the region. The indicator showed that the average Black bus rider spent 64 more hours each year commuting to work than the average White bus commuter. Latinx bus riders spent ten hours more than White bus riders, and Black subway riders spent 31 hours more than White subway riders. These stats, especially the Black-White bus-time disparity, reinforced the experiences of Black and Latinx transit riders and gave advocates a solid number to rally around for their advocacy efforts.[1] Indeed, there has been more momentum to build out better bus systems in the region in the last five years than in decades.[2],[3]

Our 2021 update to this travel time disparity indicator shows a few notable changes. Traffic in Greater Boston was rated worst in the country in 2019 and 2018.[4] Commutes, across mode and racial group, are longer than they were in 2016 by up to 12 percent. Worst hit for longer commutes have been Latinx bus riders (11 percent longer), Latinx drivers (12 percent longer), Black subway riders (10 percent longer), and Black drivers (10 percent longer).

Whether by coincidence or through the hard work of advocacy over the last five years, the only group that had commute trips increase by less than six percent were Black bus riders, whose commute time increased only two percent. Because Black bus rider commutes had the smallest increase, the Black-White bus commute gap did close from 64 hours per year to 50—still a sizable and inexcusable gap. Latinx bus riders now have a gap of 24 hours with White riders, 14 hours more than in 2016; and Black subway riders now have a gap of 46 hours with White riders, 15 hours longer than in 2016.

Despite the marginal closing of the Black and White bus commute gap, the reality is that commuting times are longer for everyone today than five years ago, and are longest for commuters of color. There is more work needed to understand the root cause of these disparities—lack of adequate transit service, jobs that are farther from home for workers of color than White workers, traffic that is worse along routes for commuters of color, or a combination of all of these and other factors.

Whatever the causes, identifying and rectifying these gaps is not only the right thing to do to improve transit equity, it will also make commuting better for everyone. There are many signs that the disparity may worsen in the coming years, as higher-income workers have the opportunity to work from home some or part of the time, and increases in traffic negatively affect bus travel times.

MetroCommon Goal: Getting Around the Region Goals A.1, A.2, A.3, and A.8

MetroCommon Recommendations: Improve accessibility and regional connectivity, Actions 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, and 2.2

Footnotes:

1. Livable Streets, 64 Hours: Closing the Bus Equity Gap, https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/livablestreetsalliance/pages/6582/attachments/original/1569205099/lsa-better-buses-2019-v9-20sep19.pdf

2. MAPC, Get it Rolling: a brief guide to mobilize bus improvements in Greater Boston, https://www.mapc.org/planning101/mapc-releases-get-it-rolling-workbook-on-bus-improvements/

3. MBTA, Better Bus Project, https://www.mbta.com/projects/better-bus-project

4. https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2021/03/09/boston-traffic-congestion-ranking-pandemic/