Best Practices for Addressing Youth Employment and Training Transportation

Abstract

The Minnesota Council on Transportation Access (MCOTA) sponsored a study of youth employment transportation issues beginning in the Spring of 2018. The council required the report detail state and national examples of inventive programs that facilitate youth accessing jobs. The survey, which only contained voluntary questions, captured information on respondent employment type, location, transportation mode, transportation issues, and demographic information. The analysis of the survey data showed that youth throughout the state are likely to face transportation issues. Employed and unemployed youth were roughly as likely to encounter transportation issues. The same occurred with disability status. However, breaking the data into regions – urban, rural, and suburban – showed marked difference. A much smaller proportion of respondents in urban areas reported transportation issues than the other two regions. It was then shown that unemployed youth with disabilities, particularly in suburban and rural areas, were most likely to face transportation issues. Viewing the transportation modes of each region, it is clear that areas where commuting by car, whether driving alone or carpooling, is associated with a higher likelihood of facing transportation issues. The report then offers recommendations tailored to the issues identified, highlighting the importance of transit and walking in areas with enough population density to support it, providing individualized rides to youth in less dense areas, and supporting transportation coordinating councils to ensure the transportation needs of youth throughout the state are met. The recommendations are further divided into manageable short, medium, and long-term goals. Finally, national, state, and local example transportation programs that align with the recommendations are listed.