HOME: Oakland Equity Indicators | Neighborhood and Civic Life | Transportation and Infrastructure 

The three Indicators in the Transportation and Infrastructure Topic measure the different ways Oaklanders travel in the city. The first Indicator measures racial and ethnic disparities in car access, which is important due to the heavy reliance on cars for commuting to work, school, and other places. The second Indicator measures the frequency of buses along each segment of the network and compares majority non-White/mixed and majority African American census tracts. The third Indicator is a citywide measurement of curb ramps that are accessible to individuals with limited mobility, including seniors and those with physical disabilities.

The Transportation and Infrastructure Topic score was 47.3, and the Indicator scores were variable. The first Indicator, car access, had the lowest score in the Topic (33). The second Indicator, bus frequency, had the highest score in the Topic (60). The third Indicator, curb ramps, scored in between at 49.

Nearly one in five African American Oaklanders did not have access to a car (18.7%), compared to 6.1% of White Oaklanders. The car ownership rate among Asians (10.0%) was similar to the citywide rate (10.2%), while the rate was lower for Latinos (7.6% did not have a car). The percent of African Americans who did not have access to a car was three (3.08) times higher than the percent of Whites without car access.

Bus frequency was highest in majority Asian census tracts, which had an average of 20.5 buses per hour, and second highest in non-White/mixed census tracts, which had an average frequency of 16.7 buses per hour. Since the two majority Asian census tracts are located near Downtown where bus frequency is expected to be highest and the same level of bus service would be expensive and unnecessary elsewhere, we chose non-White/mixed census tracts as the comparison group for this Indicator. The lowest average frequency was found in majority African American census tracts and majority Latino census tracts (both 11.0 buses per hour), with a slightly lower frequency in African American census tracts before rounding. The average number of buses per hour in majority non-White/mixed census tracts was 1.52 times the buses per hour in majority African American census tracts.

More than half of all curbs assessed in Oakland (51.6%) were not modern. Of the total curbs, 16.7% lacked a detectable warning surface (truncated domes), and 1.3% had cracking or damage.