A Balanced Transportation System Can Improve Outcomes for Youth

• In order to achieve successful adulthood, young people have developmental needs that must be met. Although quality programs throughout central Indiana seek to meet those needs, young people who cannot access them are not truly being given the opportunity to develop positively. This limits our community’s ability to achieve the outcomes we desire for our youth.
• A transit system increases access to services that support families – from basic needs to crisis prevention – and expands the positive impact that comes from a supportive community.
  

• Youth development professionals report that countless teenagers within their programs and neighborhoods are eager to take part-time jobs, but either do not yet have a driver’s license or cannot afford to buy a car. Employment options are very limited for teens in a community without a fully developed and funded public transportation system (which includes better sidewalks, bike lanes and cross walks).
• Holding a part-time job allows teens to develop employability – one of the essential skills a young person must possess to be ready for adulthood. Without opportunities to develop employability now, our youth will be limited in the roles they can assume as they mature and gaps in our community’s workforce will continue to widen.
• With improved transit options, parents may be able to seek jobs that offer better pay, benefits and opportunities for advancement.

• Childhood obesity and lifestyle-related illnesses have reached epidemic proportions in Indiana, as have diseases impacted by environmental factors such as air pollution. Balanced transportation improves air quality and encourages regular physical activity, leading to better health and quality of life for our children.
  
• Traffic and pedestrian injuries and fatalities also decrease exponentially in proportion to the public transportation options that exist in a community.
• By expanding employment opportunities, transportation systems increase access to jobs that provide health care benefits, as well as preventative health services that might not otherwise be utilized.

• A balanced transportation system that includes mass transit will make central Indiana an attractive place for young talent to live and work, reversing the dreaded “brain drain”.
• When youth are able to experience the opportunities, freedom, choice and mobility a well-developed transportation system can provide, they will be more aware and appreciative of what central Indiana has to offer and more likely to stay in the community or return after college.