Durham and Orange county residents are one step closer to accessing more affordable-transportation options. Each of the counties’ Board of Commissioners recently selected April 1, 2013 as the date to begin collecting the half-cent sales tax to support public transit investments. Expanded bus services and new commuter and light rail have the potential of expanding the reach of opportunity by connecting North Carolinians who are poor to the education, employment, and social networks that can help them improve their financial standing.

However, public transit is only helpful to riders if it connects where they live to where the opportunities are available, according to a new report released yesterday by the NC Budget and Tax Center. The success of transit, in turn, rests on increasing access for who regularly use and depend on it: low-income North Carolinians. The report found that more than two-thirds of the state’s workers using transit earn less than $25,000 per year, and a growing share of low-income workers are relying on public transit. The report also found that housing is becoming increasingly unaffordable in the urban cores, where public transit is primarily located and jobs are more plentiful. Read More…