Immigrant settlement patterns, transit accessibility, and transit use

Jeff Allen, Steven Farber, Stephen Greaves, Geoffrey Clifton, Hao Wu, Somwrita Sarkar and David Levinson

No 2021-05, Working Papers from University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group

Abstract: Public transit is immensely important among recent immigrants for enabling daily travel and activity participation. The objectives of this study are to examine whether immigrants settle in areas of high or low transit accessibility and how this affects transit mode share. This is analyzed via a novel comparison of two gateway cities: Sydney, Australia and Toronto, Canada. We find that in both cities, recent immigrants have greater levels of public transit accessibility to jobs, on average, than the overall population, but the geography of immigrant settlement is more suburbanized and less clustered around commuter rail in Toronto than in Sydney. Using logistic regression models with spatial filters, we find significant positive relationships between immigrant settlement patterns and transit mode share for commuting trips, after controlling for transit accessibility and other socio-economic factors, indicating an increased reliance on public transit by recent immigrants. Importantly, via a sensitivity analysis, we find that these effects are greatest in peripheral suburbs and rural areas, indicating that recent immigrants in these areas have more risks of transport-related social exclusion due to reliance on insufficient transit service.

Keywords: Immigrants; Public transit; Accessibility; Mode share (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: R14 R41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published in Journal of Transport Geography Volume 96, October 2021, 103187

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2021.103187 First version, 2022 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Immigrant settlement patterns, transit accessibility, and transit use (2021)
Working Paper: Immigrant settlement patterns, transit accessibility, and transit use (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nex:wpaper:immigrantsettlementpatterns

DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2021.103187

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