Date: November 9, 2022
Author(s): Madeline Brozen, Rasik Hussain, Nicole Matteson
Abstract
High transportation costs and access barriers can make it difficult for community college students to manage employment, household responsibilities, and education, negatively affecting their academic success. Understanding the state of existing transportation services and programs at California community colleges is a first step to addressing these barriers. We inventoried the transportation services, programs, and costs at 115 of the 116 California community colleges as advertised on each campus’ website. We found that most community colleges offer some form of parking or public transit student subsidies but little else. Due to the state education code, parking costs were similar across campuses. In contrast, transit pass costs varied from $0 to more than $100 per semester. On average, students paid more for transit passes than for parking permits. Throughout the search process, information on the campus’ transportation programs and services was difficult to locate since each campus posted this information in different places on their websites. The findings suggest that more colleges should consider offering low-cost transit passes by assessing a transportation fee or enacting partnerships with other government entities. California community colleges may also want to consider expanding how they provide transportation support and better publicizing information on transportation and standardizing how information is provided. Overall, community colleges, with the support of the State, have opportunities to better support students’ transportation needs to ensure that transportation access is not a barrier to educational outcomes.
About the Project
Community college students spend more on transportation than their counterparts at public and private four-year colleges, partly due to the lack of on-campus or nearby affordable housing. Recent research highlights how transportation challenges are an overlooked but basic need for community college students.