2011 Housing Planning Study - State of Hawaii

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5,000 square feet of space. An equal number of The income levels of people who will be active in these households indicated that they could Hawaii's housing market over the next few accept 3,000 to 4,000 square feet or were years tend to reflect their transportation unsure what size lot they needed (9% each). behavior. People who use public transportation have the lowest incomes. Non-commuters are a close second, followed by short commuters. HOUSING AND TRANSPORTATION Households with medium and long commutes also have median or higher incomes. Impact of Commuting on Housing Choice When we looked at housing preferences among this group, we found relationships that were As housing and transportation choices become much stronger than those for current living more aligned, housing planners focus greater arrangements. Commuters were likely to prefer attention on public transportation solutions. This home ownership and single-family units. Non- is especially true in high-priced housing markets commuters and users of public transportation like Hawaii. Our normal fuel and operational were more likely to opt for rental units and multi- costs are high relative to other states, and the family structures. fuel crises of recent years exacerbate the problem. In response, the 2011 Housing Demand Survey included our first set of items on Designing Housing with Distance in Mind transportation alternatives. Respondents to the Housing Demand Survey Several items in the Survey were devoted to that are planning to move within the State were measuring transportation need generated by asked about how many days that they commute commuting to school or work in Hawaii each week, commute times, use of public households. We were able to gather commuting transportation, and the importance of proximity to requirements for all adults in the household, school or work. ascertain zip codes for homes and associated commuting destinations, and measure Nearly 70 percent of respondents statewide said commuting time. Those data provide a rich they commute further than one mile at least 4 source of information on the issue that will days each week. Across the State of Hawai i, the support further analysis for a long time. median travel time for daily commuters is 25 minutes one way. Commuters on Oahu spend Only respondents who planned to move within about 30 minutes each day commuting to work the State answered the transportation questions. or school, while commuters on the Neighbor As a result, the transportation preferences Islands spend about 20 minutes commuting to represent the relationship between transportation their destination. and housing choice as opposed to a population- wide study of commuter transportation issues. Twenty-four percent of households include one or more members who use public transportation For this report, we combined all of that to get from home to work or school three or more information in one scale measuring commuter times each week. These households that use travel time. That measure will be our focus in public transportation are disproportionately this section of the report. renters and parents with children or multi-family households. Table 17 presents the profile of households with different commuter travel times. Table 18 shows the housing preferences for commuters and non- commuters, and Table 19 shows commuter reactions to housing and transportation issues. Hawaii Housing Planning Study,2011 Page 34 0 SMS, Inc. November,2011