Thousands of Baltimore jobseekers struggle to secure and retain employment because they do not possess reliable personal transportation. There are many reasons for this. 1) Car insurance is expensive, sometimes prohibitively so. 2) Driver’s licenses are required for many roles – often unnecessarily. 3) Cars remain the most viable mode of transportation to the majority of jobs in the Baltimore region.
These factors, among others, contribute to a troubling disconnect in Baltimore City: persistent workforce shortages across critical sectors coexist with high unemployment among skilled, motivated residents who lack reliable transportation access. In short, strong candidates can’t get to the jobs they want and need. These challenges stem from systemic barriers: restrictive licensing requirements, prohibitive vehicle ownership costs, and limited connectivity to suburban job centers where employment growth is concentrated.
This report examines how transportation access barriers—specifically driver’s license requirements, vehicle ownership costs, and spatial employment and transit patterns—prevent Baltimore residents from accessing stable employment opportunities. Through analysis of policy documents, workforce data, and 10 in-depth stakeholder interviews, we document how these interconnected barriers create cycles of exclusion that waste human capital and undermine regional economic development.
Coordination among the public and private sectors will be key in enacting durable reform. State legislators must modernize licensing rules, explore a doubling down on Senator McCray’s in-school driver’s education initiative, and explore the opportunity for a Maryland Low-Cost Auto Insurance Program inspired by the California model. City leadership can begin, this fiscal year, to fund public driver’s ed, implement the job-classification audit, and earmark impounded vehicles for low-income resale. Regional planners and employers should seek transportation commitments—transit subsidies, shuttles, flex scheduling—in major development deals and workforce partnerships. Philanthropic and community lenders can close financing gaps for cars, repairs, and insurance while tracking outcomes to guide public investment.
This report explores how each party can make achievable progress towards the shared goal of a job market that works no matter who you are, where you live, or how you get to work.