More than 700,000 American households do not have a car and lack access to public transit, making them less likely to find and keep jobs, transit advocates said.

“We knew there were pockets of households who are economically hampered by the fact that they own no car and have no access to transit, but we didn’t fully understand the true scope of the problem until now,” said Adie Tomer, author of a report compiled for the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program.

This is no surprise to public transit advocates, who have watched low-income families get priced out of transit-dense urban cores and move into older, car-centric suburbs where housing is more affordable but vehicle ownership is all but required. Earlier this year, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights argued that transportation is key to connecting the poor, seniors and those with disabilities to jobs, schools, health care and other resources. It went so far as to say “transportation equity” is a civil right.

The Brookings report shows 42 percent of suburban residents without cars don’t have access to mass transit. Compounding the problem is the fact employers have suburbanized as well, moving from city centers to far-off office parks.

“Folks have followed the affordable housing, followed the jobs, but if they lose a job or lose a little bit of income, or if the car breaks down and they can’t afford to fix it, they’re stuck,” said David Goldberg, communications director at Transportation For America, a public transportation advocacy group.

“You want to hang on to that job at all costs and you want to be seen as a good employee, but if there’s no alternative, you’re in a world of hurt,” he said.

Even where transit access is strong, many employers lie outside the reach of buses and trains. The Brookings report found that most households could only access 40 percent of total nearby jobs in under a 90 minute ride on public transit.

Metropolitan Atlanta residents without cars are worst off when it comes to access to public transit. Nearly a third of carless Atlantans live in areas that can’t be reached by public transit. Not far behind were Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Phoenix and St. Louis. Surprisingly, car-loving Los Angeles came in tops for transit access for no-car households, with fewer than 1 percent of those without cars being without access to transit. New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Miami-Fort Lauderdale rounded out the top metro areas for transit.

Where transit access is low, it’s not all because of broken-down cars and spread out cul-de-sacs. Faced with strained budgets, transit authorities are raising fares, trimming routes and cutting back on frequency.

“We’ve seen this large surge in transit ridership in the past few years, but we’ve seen corresponding cuts in service,” said Goldberg.

And though the majority of individuals stranded without public or private transit are low income, it’s a problem that affects anyone who leaves the house.

“These days, people are really looking for flexibility,” Goldberg said. “People are looking for ways to save money, avoid traffic congestion, and they are increasingly wanting to be in places where they don’t necessarily have to use a car every time they go somewhere.”

In the short term, Tomer says lack of transit access is a major economic drain on low-income families. ““If you’re going to keep afloat during the recession, you have to be able to get to work,” he said. In the long term, areas with robust public transportation may even recover faster than their car-centric counterparts. “In terms of indicators like real estate values, places that have decent transit, those places are holding their value pretty well,” said Goldberg. “The places that are utterly car dependent have not recovered.”

Photo: Joel Mann/Flickr