The Birmingham-Hoover metropolitan area ranks second-to-last nationally in the number of workers who use public transportation, and most who do are poor, according to American Community Survey numbers released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Among the nation's 50 largest metros in 2009, the Birmingham area was just ahead of the Oklahoma City area with .6 percent of working-age residents here relying on public transportation, the data showed. The national average in 2009 was 5 percent.
The vast majority of the Birmingham area's estimated 484,170 workers -- 85 percent -- drive alone to work, and 10 percent carpool, the survey found.
Of the estimated 2,681 working-age Birmingham-area residents who used public transportation to get to and from work, nearly 62 percent earn less than $15,000 each year.
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/09/birmingham_areas_transit_use_d.html
