Alexandra Murphy on Measuring Transportation Insecurity

Poverty Research & Policy

Material hardship like food or housing insecurity or inadequate access to medical care are routinely measured. But transportation insecurity has not been, despite its significance in the lives of people with low incomes, and the likelihood that it intersects with other forms of hardship. For this episode, Dr. Alexandra Murphy joins us to discuss her recent co-authored paper, titled, “How Does Transportation Insecurity Compare and Relate to Other Indicators of Material Hardship in the U.S.?” She shares her work constructing and implementing the Transportation Insecurity Index, and explains how it is being used across the country.

Alex Murphy is a sociologist at the University of Michigan where she is an Assistant Research Scientist at Poverty Solutions in the Ford School of Public Policy and is the Associate Director of Social Science Research at Mcity.