scholarly journals Public transit use in the United States in the era of COVID-19: Transit riders’ travel behavior in the COVID-19 impact and recovery period

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeleine E.G. Parker ◽  
Meiqing Li ◽  
Mohamed Amine Bouzaghrane ◽  
Hassan Obeid ◽  
Drake Hayes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Travel Behavior ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
Recovery Period ◽  
The United States ◽  
Transit Use

scholarly journals Exploring the Relationship between Ridesharing and Public Transit Use in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 1763 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanyuan Zhang ◽  
Yuming Zhang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Negative Binomial ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
Negative Binomial Regression ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sustainable Mobility ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Transit Use

Car travel accounts for the largest share of transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions in the United States (U.S.), leading to serious air pollution and negative health effects; approximately 76.3% of car trips are single-occupant. To reduce the negative externalities of cars, ridesharing and public transit are advocated as cost-effective and more environmentally sustainable alternatives. A better understanding of individuals’ uses of these two transport modes and their relationship is important for transport operators and policymakers; however, it is not well understood how ridesharing use is associated with public transit use. The objective of this study is to examine the relationships between the frequency and probability of ridesharing use and the frequency of public transit use in the U.S. Zero-inflated negative binomial regression models were employed to investigate the associations between these two modes, utilizing individual-level travel frequency data from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey. The survey data report the number of times the respondent had used ridesharing and public transit in the past 30 days. The results show that, generally, a one-unit increase in public transit use is significantly positively related to a 1.2% increase in the monthly frequency of ridesharing use and a 5.7% increase in the probability of ridesharing use. Additionally, the positive relationship between ridesharing and public transit use was more pronounced for people who live in areas with a high population density or in households with fewer vehicles. These findings highlight the potential for integrating public transit and ridesharing systems to provide easier multimodal transportation, promote the use of both modes, and enhance sustainable mobility, which are beneficial for the environment and public health.

scholarly journals Covid-19 Pandemic Impacts on Essential Transit Riders: Findings from a U.S. Survey

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian He ◽  
Dana Rowangould ◽  
Alex Karner ◽  
Matthew Palm ◽  
Seth LaRue
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Survey ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
The United States ◽  
Financing Policy ◽  
Transit Service ◽  
Transit Use ◽  
In Transit ◽  
Travel Needs

The Covid-19 pandemic has decimated public transit service across the United States and caused significant decreases in ridership. Adapting to the pandemic has been more challenging for some transit riders than for others. Little is known about the reasons for pandemic-era mode shifts and the impacts of pandemic-related transit reductions on riders’ day-to-day lives. Using a national survey of U.S. transit riders (n=500), this study examines changes in transit use since the pandemic began, the reasons for transit reductions, and the effects of reduced transit use and transit service on transit riders’ ability to meet their travel needs. The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing transportation burdens for essential transit riders, pointing to shortcomings inherent in current transit financing policy. We close with recommendations for strengthening the transit service for these groups in the long term as we recover from the pandemic.

Automobile and Public Transit Use in the United States and Canada: Comparison of Postwar Trends

1996 ◽  
Vol 1521 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-11
Author(s):  
Paul Schimek
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Transportation ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
Unit Cost ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gasoline Prices ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Transit Use ◽  
Automobile Use

Differences in automobile and public transportation use in Canada compared with that in the United States are described. In Canada public transit use is almost twice as high per capita as in the United States. Automobile use is almost 20 percent lower per capita, or about the same as the U.S. level of the 1970s. Gasoline prices, which have been about US$0.13/L (US$0.50/gal) higher in Canada than in the United States since 1984, slowed the growth in Canadian automobile ownership and driving and created a more efficient automobile fleet, resulting by the early 1990s in 40 percent less highway fuel consumption per capita compared with that in the United States. One explanation for the higher level of transit use in Canada is more compact urban densities, as evidenced by the significantly lower share of single-family detached houses. The influx of public subsidies for transit in the 1970s in both countries had different effects: a much larger increase in service in Canada and deeper fare cuts in the United States but similar increases in unit cost of service. Each new transit trip in 1992 beyond the 1970 ridership level cost about four times as much to attract in the United States as it did in Canada.

Travel Effects of a Suburban Commuter Carsharing Service

2005 ◽  
Vol 1927 (1) ◽  
pp. 182-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan A. Shaheen ◽  
Caroline J. Rodier
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Environmental Concern ◽  
San Francisco Bay Area ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vehicle Ownership ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Bay Area ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Transit Use

Since 1998, carsharing organizations in the United States have experienced exponential membership growth, but to date there have been only a few evaluations of their effects on travel. Using the results of focus groups, interviews, and surveys, this paper examines the change in travel among members of CarLink–-a carsharing model in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, with explicit links to transit and suburban employment–-after approximately 1 year of participation. The demographic and attitudinal analyses of CarLink members indicated that the typical member ( a) was more likely than an average Bay Area resident to be highly educated, in an upper income bracket, and professionally employed and ( b) displayed sensitivity to congestion, willingness to try new experiences, and environmental concern. Some of the more important commuter travel effects of the CarLink programs included an increase in rail transit use by 23 percentage points in CarLink I and II; a reduction in driving without passengers by 44 and 23 percentage points in CarLink I and II, respectively; a reduction in average vehicle miles traveled by 23 mi in CarLink II and by 18 mi in CarLink I; an increase in travel time and a reduction in travel stress; a reduction in vehicle ownership by almost 6% in CarLink II; and reduced parking demand at participating train stations and among member businesses. The CarLink travel results are compared with those of neighborhood carsharing models in the United States and Europe.

Segment: Applicability of an Existing Segmentation Technique to Transportation Demand Management Campaigns in the United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 2673 (9) ◽  
pp. 227-239
Author(s):  
Amy B. Lester ◽  
Philip L. Winters ◽  
Minh Pham
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Market Segmentation ◽  
Travel Behavior ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Demand Management ◽  
The United States ◽  
Consumer Market ◽  
Transportation Demand Management ◽  
Transportation Demand ◽  
Segmentation Technique

This research was modeled after a consumer market-segmentation technique (SEGMENT) successfully used in Europe, for its usefulness to transportation demand management (TDM) campaigns in the United States. The SEGMENT project examined how consumer market-segmentation techniques can influence travel behavior choices in favor of more energy-sustainable modes of travel. Data were collected from 1,900 individuals in Florida, Oregon, and Virginia. The data contain approximately 200 fields with information about respondents’ demographics and attitudes toward different modes of transportation, such as car, train, bike, and walking. Clustering analysis was applied to divide the sample into segments so that members of the same group share similar travel attitudes. Next, a classification model was built to predict group membership. Dividing the sample into seven segments, three non-driver and four driver, was found to be the most stable and distinctive segmentation. Seventeen questions, referred to as “golden questions,” were found to separate segments most significantly and predict group membership with 84% accuracy. Significant differences in age and household distribution between segments were observed. Mean responses to each question were used to create an attitudinal profile for each group. Major contributions are the validation of an existing segmentation technique for applicability in the United States, which could improve the effectiveness of TDM campaigns on changing travel behavior. Golden questions can be added to existing surveys to gather information about the proportion of individuals that belong to segments in an area. Additionally, limited resources can be better allocated to target those segments most susceptible to behavior change.

Influences of Neighborhood Characteristics and Personal Attitudes on University Commuters’ Public Transit Use

2015 ◽  
Vol 2500 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mi Namgung ◽  
Gulsah Akar
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Travel Behavior ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Neighborhood Characteristics ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Mixed Use ◽  
Personal Attitudes ◽  
Intersection Density ◽  
Transit Use

This study examined the links between attitudes, the built environment, and travel behavior on the basis of data from the Ohio State University's 2012 Campus Transportation Survey. The analysis results indicated that attitudes might have explained travel behavior better than the built environment. Survey respondents were asked questions about their attitudes on public transit use, and their answers were grouped into new attitudinal factors by using principal component analysis. Then, new neighborhood categories were created by K-means cluster analysis by means of built-environment and land use variables (population density, employment density, housing density, median age of structures, percentage of single-family housing, and intersection density). As a result of this analysis, discrete neighborhood categories, such as urban high-density and residential neighborhoods, and urban low-density and mixed-use neighborhoods, were created. Then, differences in attitudes toward public transit were analyzed across these new neighborhood categories. Binary logit models were estimated to determine the influence of these neighborhood categories as well as personal attitudes on public transit use after sociodemographic characteristics were controlled for. The results indicated that attitudes were more strongly associated with travel behavior than with neighborhood characteristics. The findings of this study will aid in the formation of a better understanding of public transit use by highlighting the effects of attitudes and neighborhood characteristics in transit use as well as differences in attitudes between neighborhood types.

scholarly journals Public transportation and transmission of viral respiratory disease: Evidence from influenza deaths in 121 cities in the United States

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0242990
Author(s):  
Renata E. Howland ◽  
Nicholas R. Cowan ◽  
Scarlett S. Wang ◽  
Mitchell L. Moss ◽  
Sherry Glied
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Transportation ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Population Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Respiratory Illnesses ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Transit Ridership ◽  
Transit Use

One important concern around the spread of respiratory infectious diseases has been the contribution of public transportation, a space where people are in close contact with one another and with high-use surfaces. While disease clearly spreads along transportation routes, there is limited evidence about whether public transportation use itself is associated with the overall prevalence of contagious respiratory illnesses at the local level. We examine the extent of the association between public transportation and influenza mortality, a proxy for disease prevalence, using city-level data on influenza and pneumonia mortality and public transit use from 121 large cities in the United States (US) between 2006 and 2015. We find no evidence of a positive relationship between city-level transit ridership and influenza/pneumonia mortality rates, suggesting that population level rates of transit use are not a singularly important factor in the transmission of influenza.

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