The Effects of Transit Corridor Developments on the Healthcare Access of Medically Fragile Vulnerable Populations

1. Introduction

Transportation has been cited one of the most critical barrier to access to healthcare (Institute of Medicine, 1993). A large number of studies indicate the negative impacts of transportation barrier towards access to healthcare, predominantly, for vulnerable population. Rittner and Kirk (1995) report that a majority of low income old people in poor health condition depended on public transit as their only means of accessing healthcare services. Okoro et al. (2005) report ‘lack of transportation’ and a possible dependence on public transportation as one of critical barriers to healthcare, especially for women, in a study of overcoming the barriers to preventive care among older population. Similar results are reported by Fitzpatrick et al. (2004). Flores et al. (1998) found that transportation problem was cited by 21% of the parents as the reason for lack of access to healthcare when studying the barriers to healthcare access among Latino children. Ahmed et al. (2001) report comparable results from studying barriers for non-elderly, poor Americans segments in urban settings. In a study conducted in a community health center settings, Shook (2005) reports that 32% of the patients reported a transportation barrier within the last year, with most problems related to transit. Consistently, this author finds that this barrier affects the vulnerable populations more severely than the rest. From the discussion above it is evident that transportation remains to be a major barrier to healthcare and that transit is a possibly inefficient but the only (and hence important) means of accessing healthcare especially for the most vulnerable populations.