Transit Desert

A transit desert is an area with limited transportation supply, typically combining inadequate public transportation service with poor infrastructure for walking, biking or driving as well. The concept was introduced in 2013 by researchers Junfeng Jiao and Maxwell Dillivan, who adapted the desert metaphor already used to describe gaps in food, banking and book access to describe transportation access instead. Contributing causes include suburban sprawl, segregationist land-use policies, poor urban planning and development patterns that concentrate transportation investment in central business districts while leaving other areas underserved. Living in a transit desert is associated with diminished job prospects and economic mobility, worse health outcomes and limited access to essential services, and research has found that nearly all United States cities contain transit desert areas, though their own central business districts typically escape the classification.