Study: 75K Cincy jobs unreachable by transit

A new study further reiterates how woeful Greater Cincinnati's largest public transportation system is at connecting people to jobs.

Some 75,000 jobs in healthcare and manufacturing do not have direct access to a transit stop, according to a University of Cincinnati Economics Center study released Thursday.

The study comes as Metro considers whether to ask Hamilton County voters to approve a countywide sales-tax increase, as a way to raise up to $25 million more in local funding for the bus system. A task force of business, nonprofit and community leaders is weighing whether the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority should go through with the ballot initiative next year.

Roughly $48 million or just over half of Metro's $94 million annual operating budget comes from city income taxes. Hamilton County taxpayers do not contribute anything for the bus system, although routes run beyond the city limits. Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Hartmann has said a ballot initiative would be a "sure loser."

UC researchers found that Metro ranks second-lowest in operating costs per commuter among bus-only peer cities across the U.S.

“This study tells us that our services are delivered efficiently,” said Jason Dunn, chairman of the transit authority, which runs Metro. “But we’re not yet connecting people to jobs as well as we need to. We need to deliver our services differently to meet the needs of today’s worker.”

Study findings also include:

More than 50,000 jobs in health care do not have access to Metro service within a quarter-mile of the workplace.

About 25,000 manufacturing jobs are based more than a half-mile from a Metro route.

More than 70 percent of all businesses in Hamilton County are within a quarter-mile of a Metro route, although Metro may not provide adequate levels of service to access some jobs.

Metro potentially reduces the impact of parking congestion downtown by about 8,500 spaces, or approximately 25 percent.

The top five fastest-growing ZIP codes in Hamilton County in terms of job growth from 2009 to 2014 are all within the service areas for the top five Metro routes.

Some 3.7 percent of potential commuters who work within a quarter mile of a Metro route use the service. This compares favorably to Columbus, Ohio, at 2.3 percent.

Metro supports one job per $5,900 of expenditures, $2,700 of which is locally subsidized by the city of Cincinnati earnings tax, with the balance coming from fare revenue, federal and state funding and other revenue such as advertising.

UC's study comes a year after University of Minnesota researchers found that Greater Cincinnati's transit systems ranked among the worst in the nation for connecting people to jobs. Greater Cincinnati ranked 41st among 46 cities and regions, including lagging several similar-sized metropolitan areas that Cincinnati competes with for jobs.

Go here to read the full results of the UC study.