The Unique Correlation between the Rich and Poor’s Transportation to Work
In New York State, the correlation of people walking to work with different income levels is nearly the same. My research focuses on unexpected relationships between variables, which can be one of the most interesting aspects of data analysis. When comparing unrelated variables people make the mistake of thinking correlation means causation because there can be unexpected relationships due to coincidence. In my research, I discovered that there is an unusual correlation between “Household Income in the Past 12 Months” and “Means of Transportation to Work” in the United States.
Transportation to Work vs High-Income
The chart below represents a heatmap portraying the transportation to work vs an income of $200,000 or more. The visualization was leveraged to illustrate the unique correlation between transportation to work for people with a large income. The heatmap reveals a strong relationship between high-income individuals and alternative modes of transportation such as walking, bicycling, and the use of public transportation (excluding taxicab). With the exception of taking a bus, these three forms of transportation appear to be the most physically demanding ways of commuting to work.
Societal norms might suggest that the wealthy are commuting to work by car, truck, or van, but this variable has one of the weakest correlations in the heatmap. The visualization does illustrate there is a strong relationship with wealthy people taking a “Taxicab” to work though. A reason behind these correlations could be because almost half of the population of New York State comes from New York City, which is influencing the correlation. The city is an incredibly difficult place to own a car because there is consistent traffic due to over-population and poorly designed roads. The population of large cities could have a major influence on the distribution of the correlation between income and transportation, forcing people to walk to work.
Transportation to Work vs Low-Income
Following this visualization, I created a heatmap with the same variables to make comparisons to people with an income of less than $10,000. Almost all of the variables analyzed had a correlation coefficient of 0.86 or higher, except for car, truck, or van and carpooled. These findings were not surprising because it can be difficult to afford a car as a low-income individual. The variables are stronger for this case because public transportation, buses, walking, and cycling to work are all cheap, making it cost efficient for people with low incomes. The confusing part of this heatmap is that taxis and people with an income of less than $10k have a 0.87 correlation coefficient, which is higher than people with a high-income. A potential reason for low-income individuals having a stronger correlation could be if people are ride-sharing, making the cost of taxis cheaper and more efficient than perhaps taking the bus.
Walking to Work vs Income
Since the correlation between different modes of transportation and the income of workers is similar, I created scatterplots to further understand the relationship with walking to work. The scatterplots below, both have a strong positive relationship with similar county sizes illustrated by the coloration (color bar) of the data points . It is surprising to see that there is nearly no difference in people walking to work based on the drastic gap in income shown by the mean (red dot): for every 7.3k people making less than $10k, there are 8.9k people walking to work, and for every 15.7k people making $200k or more, there are 8.9k people walking to work. Reasons for this relationship could be because overpopulated cities in New York State have busier roads, making individuals have an easier access to walking to work. The influence of urban areas can make it difficult for high-income individuals to own personal vehicles, leading them to resort to cheap and accessible transportation.
The research conducted on various modes of transportation to work based on income level yielded surprising results. Societal norms lead people to believe that high-income individuals live more luxurious lives, but the United States Census Bureau data clearly shows this is not the case. In major cities, it can be difficult to travel by vehicle, which can result in individuals at every income level having to take similar modes of transportation to work. In furthering this research, I want to uncover differences in travel based on people making $200,000/year and the wealthiest people in New York to see if the correlation remains the same.
