Car Access in San Mateo
Over 20,000 people rely on non-car options to get around San Mateo. In many census tracts, nearly one in three residents lacks reliable access to a personal vehicle. Car access also closely tracks income: Residents in below-median-income areas are much more likely to have limited access to a car as those in higher-income areas.
Access to Cars in the City of San Mateo
This data breaks down across the City of San Mateo in the table below.
| Category | Description | People | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full car access | Driving-age people in a household with one or more vehicle per driving-age person | 35,022 | 37.3% |
| Full household car access | One more driving-age person than household cars | 37,476 | 39.9% |
| Restricted household car access | Two or more driving-age people per household car | 10,314 | 11.0% |
| No household car access | Driving-age people in a household with no cars | 3,898 | 4.2% |
| Under driving age | Youth, 10–15 | 7,127 | 7.6% |
The first two rows are summarized as Adequate Car Access and the final three rows are Limited Car Access for the visualization above. Note that the scales between the datasets are independent.
Takeaways and Correlations
Car access varies widely across the city, from over 30% limited access in some areas to under 15% in others. Examining this pattern by census tract reveals a correlation with median household income.
Residents in below-median-income census tracts are much more likely to have limited access to a car as those in higher-income areas. As a result, transportation disadvantage compounds existing economic inequities, shaping who can easily reach jobs, schools, services, and community life.
| Income Level | Tracts | Estimated People | Limited Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below Median Income | 13 | 44,442 | 27.4% |
| Above Median Income | 13 | 45,982 | 17.6% |
More than 44,000 residents live in below-median-income census tracts and almost a third have limited access to a car. Planning for walking, biking, transit, and safe access for youth, seniors, and people with disabilities is not a niche concern, it is essential infrastructure for tens of thousands of residents.
Transportation policy in the City of San Mateo should reflect these realities and ensure that safe access exists for everyone in the city no matter if they choose to walk, bike, ride transit, or drive.
Data Sources and Details
All this data comes from the 2023 American Community Survey data. Table B08201 is the main table used in this analysis. The shape files come from the Census TIGER/Shapefiles. I did my best to replicate the National Resource Defense Council on access to transportation approach, they have more details on their Access Beyond Car Ownership - Methodology page
Why include children 10-15?
Including children ages 10–15 in car-access analysis reflects how cities actually function. Youth in this age range make daily trips to school, parks, libraries, and activities but are legally unable to drive, meaning they must rely on walking, biking, transit, or an available adult driver. Excluding them understates how many residents cannot meet daily travel needs by car and obscures real household constraints around shared vehicles. When safe non-auto options are lacking, these trips are shifted onto parents as chauffeuring duties, a burden that research shows disproportionately falls on mothers, shaping work schedules, travel behavior, and time use.
More info:
- Streets for Kids - Global Designing Cities Initiative
- 10 Ways to Make Streets Better for Children
- The meaning of livable streets to schoolchildren: An image mapping study of the effects of traffic on children’s cognitive development of spatial knowledge - Safe Routes Partnership
Want more data source details and detailed plots? Click here.
Who is an adult and who is a child: The first person in a household is of driving-age, according to the Census. To assess each possible number of kids under 16, binomial probability is calculated for each household size/ vehicle count combination and used in subsequent calculations:
- People of driving age in households without any car access (No household car access)
- Driving-age people in households where there are one or two fewer people driving-age than vehicles. (Restricted and Full household car access)
- Driving-age people in households where there are equal or more vehicles than people driving-age. (Full car access)
Breakdown of each of the five categories by Census Tract
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