A Socio-Economic Comparison of Urban Areas with Different Transportation System Diversity

Transportation is a critical infrastructure, which is crucial for the functionality of urban communities during routine situations and extreme events. Diversity is recognized as a key property of a resilient transportation system since it determines the abundance and distribution of transportation modes in an urban area. Further, transportation diversity influences how a transportation system responds to and recovers from extreme events like natural hazards. In this study, the transportation diversity-based on modal availability and distribution-of zip codes in New York City is measured; subsequently, the socio-economic characteristics of zip codes with varying levels of transportation diversity are analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results show that zip codes with similar transportation diversity generally have comparable socioeconomic factors. For example, residents in low transportation diversity zip codes have lower average income and higher vehicle ownership; further, these zip codes have higher commute time than other zip codes. The findings can support more comprehensive transportation and community resilience planning. For instance, the results pinpoint low transportation diversity zip codes with more disadvantaged residents, which can improve evacuation, shelter planning, and post-disaster recovery actions. In addition, improving transportation diversity will likely decrease car dependency of residents in low diversity zip codes and enhance their ability to reduce commute time.