Overview

Students need reliable and affordable transportation to attend classes, receive services, and maintain employment. MDRC will partner with postsecondary institutions in Seattle (King County), southern Florida, and northern New Mexico to examine transportation barriers that limit low-income students’ access to education and employment. Using a mixed-methods approach, MDRC will design transportation solutions in cooperation with these institutions, pilot test promising approaches, and assess their effects on student success and well-being.

The project blends behavioral science with system-level analysis to investigate the structural and behavioral factors that affect student mobility. MDRC will also explore how public benefit programs—such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Employment and Training, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and funds from the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)—can be used to give students greater access to transportation and to help institutions offer sustainable transportation support.

Identifying Barriers: MDRC will collaborate with institutions to assess students’ access to transportation in these three regions, identify barriers related to student transportation, and gauge how these challenges affect initial enrollment, continuing enrollment, and student well-being. The approach will include conversations with institutional leaders and staff members, panel discussions with students, and analyses of transportation infrastructure and public benefit programs.

Designing Solutions: In partnership with four to six institutions across two of the regions, MDRC will continue to engage student panels and will also begin holding focus groups with students and conducting workshops with institutional and community stakeholders. Using methods such as journey mapping, MDRC will work with these partners to develop and refine feasible, potentially effective transportation solutions that are regionally and institutionally relevant. 

Pilot Testing and Learning: MDRC will pilot test one of these transportation solutions in a real-world setting. Through interviews and data analysis, MDRC will assess what works, for whom, and under what conditions. The goal is to refine the intervention and produce usable guidance that can inform replication and expansion at other institutions.