tems of urban transportation cost too much and often do not work or do not work well. Present patterns and modes of urban transportation service too often are accepted complacently as the only ones possible, and the present proportions and types of transportation service and modes are too readily accepted as inevitable for the future.
THE URBAN TRAVELER
Costs such as those described above harm urban society as a whole and neglect very real needs of the individual, the urban traveler and citizen. The Unserved: Ironically, metropolitan transportation systems too often leave unserved those who most need service: The poor, the handicapped, the secondary worker, the elderly, and the young.
Typically, the poorer people are, the more dependent they are on public transportation. Car ownership statistics document this strikingly. According to a recent survey, 76 percent of households with annual incomes of less than $1,000 owned no car; in the $1,000 to $1,999 class, the percentage was 69; it was 24 percent in the $4,000 to $4,999 class, 11 percent in the $6,000 to $7,499 class; and 4 percent in the over $10.000 class. (Refer to table 1.3.) Less than half of all families with incomes under $4,000, half of all Negro households, and half of all households with heads over 65 years old own no automobiles.
Table 1.3 Automobile Ownership Within Income Groups, 1966
percentage distribution of spending units*
Puns no automobile owens ACERS 2 automobile 7 mare all spending units 54 257 21 money income before taxes under $1,000. 21 $1,000-$1,999. $2,000-$2,999. $3,000-$3,999. $4,000-$4.999. $5,000-$5,999. $6,000-$7,499. $7,500 $9,999. . $10,000-$14,999. $15,000 and over. 5 8 8 8 3 N 28 31 333 61 8
76 69 46 33 65 11 24 68 16 16 68 21 11 63 30 7 50 46 4 35 60 5
- A spending unit consists of all persons living in the same dwelling and
related by blood, marriage, or adoption, who pool their income for major items of expenses. Some families contain two or more spending units. Money income for previous year.
SOURCE: Surry of Consumer Finances, conducted by the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan.15
