New Report Details Lack of Transportation for Impoverished Residents

No one has any illusions about just how deeply the nation’s poverty problem runs. There is no simple cure, but a report from Athens County Job and Family Services and Hocking-Athens-Perry Community Action Program shows that a good place to start might be reliable public transportation.The report details the link between unavailable transportation and the economic implications that it has for people in more rural portions of Athens County and southeast Ohio in general.“Lack of transportation is often caused by poverty and it often keeps people in poverty. Steps need to be taken to alleviate this significant problem in Athens County and Ohio,” the report argues.One of the chief issues that the document addresses is the recurrence of license suspensions.Out of close to 8 million licensed drivers, over a million are facing a suspension. Many of these individuals will have their license revoked for something unrelated to a traffic violation.This can cause issues for many people in southeast Ohio who rely on the automobile as their sole source of transportation to work and other appointments. When they lose their license, their options become to either drive illegally or stay home from work.This, some might argue, creates a vicious cycle and is partly to blame for a statistic from the Ohio BMV that shows individuals who have had their license suspended, on average, have 2.8 suspensions total.This issue doesn’t even address the many Ohioans who simply can’t afford to own and operate a vehicle in the first place.The report looks at the economics associated with car ownership, and details the median cost of insurance, gas and maintenance. Citing AAA, statistics show that the average cost of operating a vehicle each year is $8,946. Unfortunately, in places like Athens County where a third of its residents live below the poverty line making $11,490 a year or less, car ownership is not practical.Beyond a loss of work, people who lack transportation are also cut off from crucial appointments in town.An anonymous individual was cited in the document as saying, “My kids have missed a lot of doctor appointments due to the fact we didn’t have transportation. I have also missed welfare appointments due to the same fact.”The report argues that the only solution for southeast Ohio’s private transportation deficiency is to strengthen the public transit system.The current standard is the Athens city bus service, but its relatively closed route and 12 hours of operation make it largely unavailable to those who need it most. While services like the GoBus, which runs through Athens to more metropolitan locations like Cincinnati and Columbus, mark progress, southeast Ohio still lacks a service to ferry people shorter distances.The public transportation simply needs more funding as well as a national authority to make it more efficient, claims the report. It also comes to more interesting conclusions, such as its advocacy of Obama’s proposed minimum wage increase.