Project description

This project will analyze quantitative data from an ongoing survey (which

will close before the start of this project) to improve understanding of

how individuals' choices and desires for local transportation and

neighborhood location in California differ based on disability along with

other characteristics, namely income, race, gender, geographic location,

and age. Additionally, it will collect new qualitative data through follow-

up interviews of survey respondents to identify specific problems that

individuals in California face with transportation and housing. Relevant

products of this project will include an important source of data that

could be used in future data analyses too. Final reports with the results

from the analysis of survey data as well as the follow-up interviews be

distributed as appropriate to Caltrans as well as disability advocacy

organizations. The researchers anticipate those materials will help to

empower people with disabilities as well as people from other

marginalized backgrounds to improve transportation and housing options

available to them and will assist policymakers in this regard. This will

likely be especially important in the context of California, where

suburbanization of poverty in large coastal metropolitan areas, aging of

the population as a whole, and high levels of dependence on private

automobility (including driving oneself as well as depending on family or

friends for rides) may together contribute to greater rates of social

exclusion among people with disabilities. Additionally, survey data will

include responses from people from diverse racial and geographic

backgrounds, including the Central Valley where people are more likely to

have racially marginalized backgrounds and experience environmentally

induced disabilities; this will be critical to understanding the diversity of

needs with respect to race, geography, and disability type.