On January 29, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted in an article about transit deserts:
Consider: In 2005, according to statistics, some 3.1 million workers nationwide commuted for 90 minutes or more one way, as Blough does, but that number had nudged up to 4 million by 2016. That’s at least in part because, as gentrification has jacked up housing prices in desirable areas like Washington—regularly listed as one of nation’s most expensive cities in which to live—low- and middle-income households have retreated further into the suburbs and urban periphery. And that, in turn, has caused them to spend more time and money on getting to and from work.
“A lot of these workers in low-wage jobs—they either have to [move] to Prince George’s County, Maryland, or Alexandria, Virginia, and the transportation network has not changed to meet the changing demands,” says Yesim Sayin Taylor, an economist and founding executive director of the DC Policy Center, a think tank focusing on Washington’s economic and social issues. “Even though transportation is costly, it’s less costly than living in the city.”
Read more: In an Unequal America, Getting to Work Can Be Hell | The Nation