Basis Report for A Heavy Load: The Combined Housing and Transportation Burdens of Working Families, October 2006

A Heavy Load presents the highlights of two studies commissioned by the Center for Housing Policy as part of its work on housing and transportation supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. One report, prepared by researchers from the Institute of Transportation Studies at University of California, Berkeley focuses on the housing and transportation choices and tradeoffs of individual working family households. It considers how these outcomes differ by family type and how they compare to upper-income families.

The Berkeley report is available below.

The other report, prepared by researchers from the Center for Neighborhood Technology and Virginia Tech, examines how combined housing and transportation cost burdens affect the neighborhood choices of working families, and in turn, their quality of life in terms of job access, congestion and sprawl. The CNT report is available here.

Institute for Transportation Studies, University of California, Berkeley

The Center for Transportation Studies (ITS) at the University of California, Berkeley is a nationally renowned center of transportation research that has a closeworking relationship with the California Department of Transportation. Each year nearly two hundred faculty, students and professional research staff participate in its many projects. The goal of ITS is to carry out basic and applied research and advanced professional training on all aspects of transportation with rigor and objectivity. It focuses especially on projects that address transportation policy, technology, the safety and performance of transportation systems, and relationships between transportation and the social, economic and natural elements of the environment.

Research provided by Robert Cervero, Karen Chapple, John Landis and Martin Wachs

Report: Making Do: How Working Families in Seven U.S. Metropolitan Areas Trade Off Housing Costs and Commuting Times (PDF)

Appendix A: Charts of Metropolitan Area PUMA Types (PDF)

Appendix B-D: Data (PDF)