Employment Transit Access

Definition

Percent of jobs within 1/4 mile of a transit stop

Why is it Important?

Public transit benefits everyone in the community, even people who never ride it. Public transit reduces congestion on roads, which saves time and reduces fuel costs for those who drive. Public transit also enables workers to get to their jobs, allows workers to access a broader range of job opportunities, and increases the labor pool for businesses, all of which supports the economy. Access to work is an important indicator of the efficacy of the transit system, because the most common destination for public transit trips is work.¹ This indicator provides a measure of the percent of jobs that have the potential to be accessed by transit.² The ¼ mile distance used in the measure corresponds to a convenient 10 minute walking time.

How are we Doing?

In the St. Louis region, 55.1 percent of jobs were located within ¼ mile of a transit stop as of 2021. This is lower than it was in 2011 when an estimated 69.2 percent of jobs were within ¼ mile of a transit stop. In 2022, about 659,000 of 1.2 million jobs are considered transit accessible. Both the percentage of jobs and the number of jobs with access declined from the baseline year. At the same time, total employment in the region increased by about 6.5 percent.

The decrease in transit accessible jobs is in part due to Madison County Transit transitioning from a “flag-stop” system to a traditional bus stop system in 2014. And, in September 2019, Bi-State implemented a new plan for organizing MetroBus routes in Missouri. Through this process, the agency evaluated and revised all bus routes in Missouri. This resulted in increased frequency along routes with high-ridership and less frequent or discontinuation of service on low-ridership routes.³  

 

Geographic Level

St. Louis eight-county bi-state region, including Franklin, Jefferson, St. Charles, and St. Louis counties and the city of St. Louis in Missouri and Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair counties in Illinois. View map.

Notes

¹Tomer, Adie et al. Missed Opportunity: Transit and Jobs in Metropolitan America, May 2011; accessed on 9 January 2014 at http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2011/5/12%20jobs%20and%20transit/0512_jobs_transit.pdf

²Transit stops for this indicator include bus and MetroLink stops for Metro Transit, bus stops for the St. Charles Area Transit system, and bus stops for the Madison County Transit (MCT) system. For years prior to 2014, this indicator was calculated using the full length of bus routes for MCT. MCT used a flag stop system in which passengers could get on or off the bus at any intersection. As of 2014 MCT transitioned to designated bus stops.  

³Metro St. Louis website accessed on 24 February 2020 at https://www.metrostlouis.org/nextstop/metro-announces-new-metro-reimagined-service-plan/

 

Data Sources

Dun & Bradstreet, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, and East-West Gateway Council of Governments