Penelope-  Transit agencies have to perform what is called Title 6 analysis to show that they do not discriminate by race or income.   We usually rely on HUD data which defines low income based on a combination of income and the size of the household.   So the problem is that you have to look at identifying household size by income and do that for up to 7 categories.  That is how low income is defined. The other issue is that these are changed based on inflation so that the income ranges change every year I think, So you have to sort how many households are below a certain income level by size of household and add them together.  The income ranges typically do not match census income ranges also.  For simplicity, we generally pick an income level that covers the majority of household sizes, typically 4 or 5 persons. For recent examples, we used a Household Income of $25,000 or less as a definition of low income.  Granted somewhat simple, but it can narrow the process and comports with Census income ranges.

Tom Marchwinski

Director, Market Research and Fare Policy

Metro-North Railroad

Hey CTPPers, I received this query, I welcome your thoughts.