Driving Out of the Red with Greener Cars: Policies for Cheaper, Cleaner Auto Transportation in California's Central Valley

Income inequality in California is already high, and it continues to increase. This income inequality is exacerbated by unequal access to jobs, credit, and efficient vehicles. Wages in California's Central Valley are lower than in the rest of the state, and workers there must commute long dista...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Policy File 2014
Main Author: Margonelli, Lisa
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
Environment
New America Foundation
Transportation
Online Access:Request full text
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Summary:Income inequality in California is already high, and it continues to increase. This income inequality is exacerbated by unequal access to jobs, credit, and efficient vehicles. Wages in California's Central Valley are lower than in the rest of the state, and workers there must commute long distances, with little access to alternative transportation, in older, inefficient cars. As a result, some working families in the Central Valley spend as much as a third to half of their income on fueling and maintaining their vehicle. Some lower-income neighborhoods also suffer from very high levels of tailpipe exhaust from cars that have become unregistered. This new white paper contains on-the-ground reporting, a new survey of farmworkers, and empirical analysis of the burden of transportation costs on Valley families. Amidst the bad news, the report also discovered that the Central Valley is a hotspot for transit innovation: Valley workers have used their social networks to carpool and vanpool at a higher rate than the rest of the state.