Public Transportation Paper Example

Transportation (Luke Roberts, Taylor McQuilin)

The primary means of transportation within Pima County include driving, biking, walking, and public transit. While there are multiple means of transportation in Pima County, driving is the most commonly used mode of transportation within this community. According to the American Community Survey from 2012-2016, 86.5% of the population within Pima County use their own private form of transportation (car, truck, van, motorcycle). Biking accounts for 1.8%, while walking accounts for 2.3% of transportation throughout Pima County (DADS, 2010). Lastly, 2.8% of the population in Pima County uses some form of public transportation as a way to get around (DADS, 2010).

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This chart compares the primary modes of transportation within Pima County (orange) to the overall percentages of these transportation methods within the United States (grey). Like Pima County, driving is the most commonly used method of transportation throughout the U.S. as well.

In Pima County, every resident has access to reliable methods of transportation in one way or another. For those who do not own private vehicles, the other methods of transportations (biking, walking, carpooling, public transit) are just as reliable within the community. In Pima County, 9.9% of the total population carpools daily. Carpooling based off of sex shows that 10.6% of the female population carpool while only 9.4% of the male population carpool in Pima County (DADS, 2010). Biking is another reliable method of transportation available to the residents of Pima County. Programs such as The Loop and Bike Buddy exist to help those residents who commute throughout the community in this fashion. These programs encourage biking as a beneficial source of transportation within Pima County in hopes to promote the use of this cost-effective transportation method. The Loop is a primary bike route offered as a systematic means to transport around Pima County. This system connects over 120 miles of paved pathways from Rillito, Santa Cruz and Pantano River Parks to the Julian Wash and Harrison Road Greenways (Chuck, 2018). Public transit is an additional method of transportation throughout Pima County. The rates for public transit, although not nearly as high as the rates for driving and carpooling, are greater than those of biking and walking. Forms of public transit offered throughout Pima County include the Sun Tran, SunLink, Sun Shuttle, and Sun Van (Sun Van, 2018).

Public Transit Transportation- Fares (Sun Van, 2018)

This chart depicts the fares of public transit in Pima County that became effective the 1st of January of the 2018 year. Fares fluctuate based on whether or not individuals have a SunGO Card and ID. Options to purchase these cards are available on their website. However, there are many challenges facing the transportation systems in Pima County.

The Pima County Transportation Department is tasked with the maintenance, design, construction, and operations of all unincorporated Pima County. This includes about 2,200 miles of roadways along with street lights, street signs, traffic signals, bridges, and drainage systems (The Road to Recovery, 2018). Due to a lack of funding the Pima County Health Department has been unable to properly manage and maintain the roads and infrastructure in Pima County. Subsequently nearly 60% of the roads are in poor or failing condition (The Road to Recovery, 2018). It would cost the Pima County Health department 250 million to repair the roadways with an additional 30 million a year for 10 years in order to prevent the problem from getting worse (The Road to Recovery, 2018). In order to meet these cost Pima County would need to pass a countywide half-cent sales tax for the repair and maintenance on county roads. Currently, Pima county is the only county in Arizona that does not impose a countywide sales tax (The Road to Recovery, 2018). This would generate enough funding for the Pima County Transportation Department to properly maintain the roads and infrastructure for the county.

Transportation can be related to health problems in relation to quality of the environment, and air pollution. When it comes to the environment, the resident's welfare, safety, and quality of life is considered within the community's population (Environmental, 2018). Air pollution is becoming an issue, especially within Pima County. As of August 3, 2018, the PDEQ Clean Air Program issued a high pollution advisory due to the elevation of ground-level ozone air pollution (PDEQ, 2018). This is directly related to health problems because people within the population could begin to experience shortness of breath or breathing discomfort, coughing, wheezing, and throat irritation. The quality of air pollution could determine how long people should be outside and what time of the day is not a good time to be outside (Air, 2018). The only problem with this, is that sometime people are not able to control when they are outdoors or not. Transportation affects air pollution by driving cars and motorcycles, and buses. By limiting the amount of driving within these motor vehicles, it will improve the overall quality of the air that the Pima County community endures. A way that Pima County limits the health problems related to transportation is by getting their community members to take a "Drive-Less Pledge". According to the PDEQ's Clean Air Program, "skipping a trip in your motorized vehicle or taking a "no-drive" day each week can reduce air pollution by more than 1,100 pounds a year, which will help clean the air for everyone" (Drive-Less, 2018). Just as individuals within a community can control what method of transportation they take, they are also able to control the quality of air within their community. Other methods of transportation are better than driving in order to improve the overall quality of the environment and the health problems within Pima County.

Occupational Data (Ibtihal Amailou, Lauren Krebs)

Pima County Population Demographics

Pima County is a county within the state of Arizona, and as of 2017, the county is estimated to have had a population of 1,022,769 people according to the United States Census Bureau. 19.1% of the Pima population is below the poverty level, and the county has diverse demographic groups (Pima County, Arizona Population 2018. n.d.)Pima County is located in Arizona which is in South America, the county is the second largest in .TheArizona. The county population in the year 2017 was 1,022,769 which is an increase compared to 2016 was 1,003,338 showing a growth of 19,431 and the growth rate of 1.94%.The White Americans are the majority population in the county with 775,748 according to a 2016 estimate. The Black Americans follow with a population of 35,337 and the American Indian and Alaska Native people combined having a total population of 32,542. The mixed-race population is significant in Pima County with 41,572 people. Veterans living in the county account for 86,938 people. The population demographic is very important in estimating the public health needs of the county. Give rates as well as numbersCurrent Employment and Unemployment Rates

The employment rate in Pima County has remained low due to the lagging business environment in the county. The total employment in the county in the past one year has declined and the labor force reduced by 3,400 who are people who have stopped looking for work or left the county. Retailers in Pima County shed 500 jobs in 2017 between September and October (Fischer, 2017). The employment rate in the Arizona has been increased because of the increase in the state construction industry. The unemployment rate as of AugustJuly 2018 in the county was 4.86% which shows a downward trend compared to other counties in Arizona. However there is rise in the construction of residential buildings which will increase the employment levels. Unemployment has a significant impact on health outcomes in a community and the high unemployment in Pima County depicts the state of public health in the county. With a growth rate of 1.94 yearly, the high unemployment, and the drastically growing population will create pressure on the existing public health resources in the county (Pima County. n.d).Pima County Workforce Makeup by Sex, Age, Race/Ethnicity

Pima County has a fairly equal workforce of 50.81% women and 49.19% male based on the population of the county. The population of the workforce in Pima County is made up of 436,074 people which is the population above 186 years of age. However, 4.6% of this population according to the unemployment data are unemployed. Only 11.0% of the entire population in Pima County is covered with health insurance amongst people with 65 years of age. Regarding labor force participation by race, the mixed color ethnic groups have labor participation of 65%. The Hispanic ethnic group follows with a labor force participation of 64%, the 2+ races follows with 63% labor force participation, the black Americans follows with 62% and the white non-Hispanics have the lowest labor participation of 53%. Regarding education, the workforce with a bachelor's degree or higher has the highest labor force participation of 78% and those with below high school education have the lowest labor force participation at 60% (Pima County, Arizona Population 2018. n.d.).

Categories of Employment and Percentages of the Population in the Categories also include data by race Categories of employment in Pima County are diverse, and healthcare and social assistance have the highest number of the workforce standing at 15.1% as of 2016. The employment categories in Pima Counties include; Healthcare and social assistance (15.1%), retail trade (12.3%), education services (9.8%), accommodation and food service (8.4%), administration, support, waste management services (7%), professional, scientific, technology (6.8%), construction (6.5%), manufacturing (6.2%), public admin (5.8%) amongst others (Pima County. n.d.). These data show that health care and social assistance has the largest workforce in Pima County accounting for 40.3% of the total employment which can translate to better public health services and outcomes in the county..

Largest Employers of Pima County

Pima county has many large businesses. The current largest employer is the University of Arizona. Between faculty, staff, and student workers, the university employs over 10,800 people. Raytheon Missile Systems is the second largest employer in Pima county, with roughly 10,300 employees. Raytheon Missile Systems produce many missile systems for the U.S and our allied forces, and their headquarter is located here in Tucson. The Davis-Monthan Air Force Base hase 9,100 employees. Other large employers are the State of Arizona with over 8,800 employees, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. employing 7,450 people, Tucson Unified School district with 7,688 workers, and U.S. Border Patrol with 6,500 employees (ARG Publications, 2018).

Health Risks Related to Employment

The health risks associated with working in Pima county depends upon the job that is being performed. A desk assistant at the University of Arizona has a lower health risk than someone working a forklift for Wal-Mart, or someone putting together missiles and chemicals at Raytheon Missile Systems. The health risks depend on the line of work and hazards associated with it. However, these companies have policies in place to do their best to protect their workers. For workers at the University of Arizona, they are at an increased risk of catching a cold or flu due to being around so many different people. They also may be at an increased risk of certain STDS due to higher prevalence rates of STDs on coll...