## Transportation in Lansing, MI: ALICE, Access & Deserts ### The ALICE Context ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) describes households that earn above the Federal Poverty Level but still can't afford the basics — including transportation. In Ingham County (Lansing's home county), 41% of households fall below the ALICE Threshold — 17% in poverty and 24% who are ALICE. The county's median household income of $57,226 is notably below the state average of $63,498. Transportation is one of the budget line items that ALICE households must weigh against housing, food, childcare, and healthcare — often resulting in painful tradeoffs like whether to fix the car or fill a prescription. Statewide, 41% of Michigan households were below the ALICE Threshold in 2023, with notable racial disparities — 62% of Black households and 44% of Hispanic households affected, compared to 38% of white households. Lansing, with a 22.7% Black population and significant Hispanic community, reflects these disparities locally. --- ### How Lansing Residents Get Around In 2023, 67.3% of Lansing workers drove alone to work, 11.5% carpooled, and 13.2% worked from home. Average commute time was 19.7 minutes — shorter than the national average of 26.6 minutes. This car-dependency picture matters enormously for ALICE households who may not own reliable vehicles or be able to absorb costs like insurance, fuel, and maintenance. --- ### Public Transit: CATA The Capital Area Transportation Authority (CATA) is the backbone of public transit in the region. CATA operates 32 bus routes and had a ridership of nearly 9 million in 2024. The system's main hub is the CATA Transportation Center in downtown Lansing, with a satellite hub at Michigan State University. CATA buses feature low-floor designs, audio announcements, and other ADA-accessible features. The system covers communities including East Lansing, Holt, Mason, Okemos, Haslett, Meridian Township, and others in the tri-county region. However, coverage gaps remain significant — particularly for those working non-traditional hours or living in suburban or peri-urban areas. --- ### Transit Deserts & Equity Gaps A "transit desert" is a concentrated area where resident demand for public transportation is non-existent or vastly undersupplied. Vulnerable populations — seniors, low-income residents, and people with disabilities — have lower access to personal vehicles and are disproportionately mobility-challenged. This not only limits economic activity but also contributes to social isolation and poor health outcomes. Lansing's lower-income and minority neighborhoods — particularly on the south and east sides of the city — have historically had less reliable or frequent service relative to demand. Suburban sprawl has compounded this, with jobs increasingly located in areas poorly served by transit. **Overnight and third-shift workers** represent a critical gap. CATA recognized this directly: CATA received a grant through Michigan's $15M Equitable Mobility Challenge to launch the SELECTS program — a new on-demand microtransit service for third-shift workers, making it easier for underserved residents and those with disabilities to safely connect from their workplace to home during overnight hours. --- ### Food & Service Deserts — The Access Compounding Effect Transportation gaps don't just affect commuting — they compound access to groceries, healthcare, and other essentials. Research on Lansing found stark spatial inequalities in produce access. While most locations in the metro area are within a 10-minute drive to produce, most locations in Lansing have no produce items within a 10-minute walk. In Lansing's most densely populated areas, most people have inadequate pedestrian nutritional access — meaning food deserts disproportionately affect individuals without automobiles. This creates a compounding burden: ALICE households least able to afford a car are also least able to access food, healthcare, and employment without one. --- ### Ongoing & Emerging Efforts - **Bus Rapid Transit (BRT):** CATA has long pursued a BRT corridor along Michigan Avenue connecting downtown Lansing to East Lansing and Meridian Mall. BRT service would reduce one-way corridor travel time from 45 to 37.5 minutes and provide more frequent service with extended hours. Progress on this project has been slow but remains part of long-range planning. - **Regional Microtransit (SELECTS):** The overnight on-demand service noted above is a direct response to the third-shift worker gap. - **MI Carshare:** Michigan is expanding a statewide carshare platform (MI Carshare), with Lansing listed as a likely expansion city, which could give car-free ALICE households access to vehicles for trips transit can't cover. --- ### Summary Lansing faces a transportation landscape typical of mid-sized Rust Belt cities: heavy car dependency, a transit system that serves core corridors reasonably well but struggles with coverage in lower-density and overnight contexts, and a significant ALICE population that bears the greatest cost of these gaps. The intersection of transit deserts, food deserts, and financial fragility is particularly acute for Lansing's communities of color, seniors, and shift workers. Recent equity-focused investments like SELECTS are encouraging, but the structural mismatch between where ALICE households live and work, and where transit reliably goes, remains a persistent challenge.
**References** 1. **ALICE in Michigan / Ingham County Data** [United Way ALICE Report – Michigan](https://www.unitedforalice.org/michigan) 2. **Lansing Commute & Mode Share Statistics** [Data USA – Lansing, MI](https://datausa.io/profile/geo/lansing-mi) 3. **CATA System Overview & Ridership** [Capital Area Transportation Authority – CATA](https://www.cata.org) 4. **Transit Deserts Definition & Equity** [Mineta Transportation Institute – Transit Deserts Research](https://transweb.sjsu.edu) 5. **CATA Accessibility Features** [CATA Accessibility Page](https://www.cata.org/accessibility) 6. **CATA SELECTS Program / Equitable Mobility Grant** [Michigan Department of Transportation – Equitable Mobility Challenge](https://www.michigan.gov/mdot) 7. **Lansing Food Desert / Pedestrian Produce Access Study** This was drawn from academic research on spatial food access in Lansing — the specific study examined walkable vs. drivable access to produce. A good entry point: [USDA Food Access Research Atlas](https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-atlas/) 8. **CATA BRT / Michigan Avenue Corridor** [CATA Michigan Avenue BRT Planning](https://www.cata.org/brt) **A note of transparency:** I should be upfront that while the information I provided is accurate to the best of my knowledge, some of the specific citations were drawn from my training data rather than live web searches during our conversation. I'd recommend verifying key statistics directly at the links above, particularly for the most current ridership figures, ALICE thresholds, and program status. If you'd like, I can do a more targeted live search on any specific aspect to pull fresher sourcing.