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Should access to public transportation be a civil right, since the lack of it in car-focused societies restricts access to jobs, education and other opportunities?

This is a complex question to address. It brings me back to the root of many urban city issues - to the importance of how cities are designed, future growth and development and access to the necessities of life. Cities continue to grow, and new neighbourhoods are born, but many are missing some key elements to make them sustainable. Access to public transit, schools, jobs, fresh local foods, nature and recreation are limited in newly developed neighbourhoods where their car-focused design is sometimes the only method to commute. With the energy crisis and unemployment rates continuing to rise a less car-dependent city may be the way of the future for cities to be more resilient in an economic crisis.

A recent article from TreeHugger.com:

Why towns with good transit options are recovering faster from the recession.

Cities and towns with good public-transit options offer more convenience for residents and are, of course, more environmentally friendly places to live. Now it also seems these places are the ones bouncing back quickest from the economic recession.

Lack of access to public transportation is a major barrier keeping out-of-work people, especially those in lower-income groups, from finding jobs, according to a new report by the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. “We knew there were pockets of households who are economically hampered by the fact that they own no car and have no access to transit, but we didn’t fully understand the true scope of the problem until now,” report author Adie Tomer told Wired magazine’s Autopia blog.

Suburbanized Employers Compound The Problem
Transit advocates told Autopia that “more than 700,000 American households do not have a car and lack access to public transit, making them less likely to find and keep jobs…. Compounding the problem is the fact employers have suburbanized as well, moving from city centers to far-off office parks.”

Such facts have led some activists to address public transportation as a civil rights issue, since the lack of it in car-focused societies restricts access to job, education, and other opportunities.

Car-Dependent Places Have Lost Value
Perhaps more surprising, however, is that what creates financial challenges for individuals also seems to be problematic for entire communities struggling to right themselves economically. “In terms of indicators like real estate values, places that have decent transit, those places are holding their value pretty well,” David Goldberg of the advocacy group Transportation for America told Autopia. “The places that are utterly car-dependent have not recovered.”

Why Towns With Good Transit Options Are Recovering Faster From the Recession : TreeHugger

Commentary posted by Katie Van Den Berg