Developing a New Measure of Transportation Insecurity: An Exploratory Factor Analysis

Abstract

Scholarship recognizes that problems with transportation have important consequences for individual well-being and life chances. Yet no single measure exists that captures the multiple manifestations of transportation insecurity, a condition in which one is unable to regularly move from place to place in a safe and timely manner because one lacks the resources necessary for transportation. Using an original survey of 511 respondents from GfK’s KnowledgePanel®, we use exploratory factor analysis to estimate an initial factor structure, a step toward developing a new measure of transportation insecurity: the Transportation Security Index. Our results suggest that a two-factor solution best fits the data, and item content suggests that the factors represent the material and relational manifestations of transportation insecurity, respectively.