Anne Arundel County: Transportation Mobility and Accessibility

Abstract

This report examines where jobs and workforce participants are located in Anne Arundel County, and what transit options connect them. Special attention is paid to low-income workforce participants and low-income job sites. The goal is to determine if there is a spatial mismatch between where workforce participants live and where jobs are located in Anne Arundel County, and to assess whether or not transit options address that mismatch. To this end, we have produced maps that identify transit coverage, major clusters of low-income workers’ residences and job locations, and transit captivity, which is a measure of households that have no private transportation option and are reliant on public transportation. What we found was that transit within the county is connected to most residential neighborhoods and employment centers, though it doesn’t comprehensively serve each neighborhood or employment area it touches. Some residential communities, such as Cape St. Claire and job centers including a cluster around the I-97/Crain Highway intersection, completely lack transit services. The report also identifies communities that may contain transit dependent individuals. Based on our findings, we recommend further study of transit dependent populations and feasibility studies to expand transit services to underserved areas. The findings come with caveats; we did not have origin-destination data, so analysis of transit patterns cannot pinpoint actual behaviors. Also, the employment data used excluded federal employees, meaning Ft. Meade, an area of signficiant employment in the county, was not included in the dataset.