Comparison of Two Common Approaches to Public Transit Service Equity Evaluation

2015 ◽  
Vol 2531 (1) ◽  
pp. 170-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Karner ◽  
Aaron Golub
Keyword(s):  
Census Data ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
Transit System ◽  
The Public ◽  
Transit Service ◽  
Transit Ridership ◽  
Data Source ◽  
Equity Evaluation ◽  
Equity Effects ◽  
Service Change

Understanding the equity effects of transit service changes requires good information about the demographics of transit ridership. Onboard survey data and census data can be used to estimate equity effects, although there is no clear reason to conclude that these two sources will lead to the same findings. Guidance from the FTA recommends the use of either of these data sources to estimate equity impacts. This study made a direct comparison of the two methods for the public transit system in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area. The results indicated that although both sources were acceptable for FTA compliance, the use of one or the other could affect whether a proposed service change was deemed equitable. In other words, the outcome of a service change equity analysis could differ as a result of the data source used. To ensure the integrity and meaning of such analyses, FTA should recommend the collection and use of ridership data for conducting service change analyses to supplement approaches that are based on census data.

Optimizing Public Transit Quality and System Access: The Multiple-Route, Maximal Covering/Shortest-Path Problem

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Changshan Wu ◽  
Alan T Murray
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Shortest Path ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
The United States ◽  
Path Model ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Transit Service ◽  
Maximal Covering ◽  
Transit Ridership ◽  
Transit Agencies

Public transit service is a promising travel mode because of its potential to address urban sustainability. However, current ridership of public transit is very low in most urban regions—particularly those in the United States. Low transit ridership can be attributed to many factors, among which poor service quality is key. Transit service quality may potentially be improved by decreasing the number of service stops, but this would be likely to reduce access coverage. Improving transit service quality while maintaining adequate access coverage is a challenge facing public transit agencies. In this paper we propose a multiple-route, maximal covering/shortest-path model to address the trade-off between public transit service quality and access coverage in an established bus-based transit system. The model is applied to routes in Columbus, Ohio. Results show that it is possible to improve transit service quality by eliminating redundant or underutilized service stops.

scholarly journals Improving the public transit system for routes with scheduled headways

2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jones Chuang ◽  
Peter Chu
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Unique Solution ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
Traffic Model ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Total Cost ◽  
Numerical Examples ◽  
The Public ◽  
Transit Performance

This research contributes to the improvement of the optimal headway solution for the transit performance functions (e. g., minimize total cost; maximize social welfare) derived from the traffic model proposed by Hendrickson. The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, we prove that that model has a unique solution for headway. Second, we offer a formulated approximation for headway. Third, numerical examples illustrate that our formulated approximation performs more accurately than the Hendrickson?s.

Understanding Differences in Public Transit: Comparison of Boston and Toronto

1997 ◽  
Vol 1604 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Schimek
Keyword(s):  
Population Density ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
Operating Costs ◽  
Level Of Service ◽  
Massachusetts Bay ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
Transit Service ◽  
American Cities ◽  
The City

Public transit systems in Toronto and Boston, two North American cities of similar size and income, are compared. Although Boston has a reputation as a transit-oriented city, there are about twice as many public transit trips in Toronto. Transit service in Toronto runs, on average, twice as frequently as service in Boston on a network of similar size. This level of service can be supported in part because population density does not decrease as much with increasing distance from the center of the city and because employment is more centralized. The transit system in Boston is constrained from emulating the Toronto transit system not only by a less transit-favorable distribution of population and employment but also by operating costs that are twice as high. The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority’s higher costs are the result of more fringe benefits for employees and disproportionately more managers and fixed facilities.

scholarly journals The sociotechnical roots of smart mobility: Bike sharing since 1965

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-159
Author(s):  
Jan Ploeger ◽  
Ruth Oldenziel
Keyword(s):  
Public Transit ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Electric Cars ◽  
The Public ◽  
System A ◽  
Embedded Design ◽  
Bike Sharing ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
The 1960S

The search for “smart” or Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based mobility solutions goes back to at least the 1960s. The Provo anarchist Luud Schimmelpennink is well-known for designing mobility solutions and for being the driving force behind the 1965 “white-bike” experience. Less known is his 1968 project for shared electric cars (“Witkar”), which laid the foundations for the ICT-based bicycle sharing systems as we know today. By combining his talent for innovation with activism, he created a socially embedded design that could be part of the public transit system. Based on primary sources, we argue that these sociotechnical experiences paved the way for today’s mainstream bicycle sharing projects worldwide. We then show how since the 1990s, the Dutch railroad’s public transit bicycle (OV-fiets) has transformed Schimmelpennink’s original anarchist idea of bike sharing into a sustainable public transit system – a feat that has eluded other programmes worldwide: the integration of the bicycle’s share in a door-to-door experience.

Partnerships in Urban Mobility: Incentive Mechanisms for Improving Public Transit Adoption

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Auyon Siddiq ◽  
Christopher S. Tang ◽  
Jingwei Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Public Transit ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Public ◽  
Direct Mechanism ◽  
Indirect Mechanism ◽  
Transit Ridership ◽  
Last Mile ◽  
Transit Station ◽  
The Government

Problem definition: Because of a prolonged decline in public transit ridership over the last decade, transit agencies across the United States are in financial crisis. To entice commuters to travel by public transit instead of driving personal vehicles, municipal governments must address the “last-mile” problem by providing convenient and affordable transportation between a commuter’s home and a transit station. This challenge raises an important question: Is there a cost-effective mechanism that can improve public transit adoption by solving the last-mile problem? Academic/practical relevance: In this paper, we present and analyze two incentive mechanisms for increasing commuter adoption of public transit. In a direct mechanism, the government provides a subsidy to commuters who adopt a “mixed mode,” which involves combining public transit with hailing rides to/from a transit station. The government funds the subsidy by imposing congestion fees on personal vehicles entering the city center. In an indirect mechanism, instead of levying congestion fees, the government secures funding for the subsidy from the private sector. We examine the implications of both mechanisms on relevant stakeholders. These two mechanisms are especially relevant because several jurisdictions in the United States have begun piloting incentive programs, in which commuters receive subsidies for ride-hailing trips that begin or end at a transit station. Methodology: We present a game-theoretic model to capture the strategic interactions among five self-interested stakeholders (commuters, public transit agency, ride-hailing platform, municipal government, and local private enterprises). Results: By examining equilibrium outcomes, we obtain three key findings. First, we characterize how the optimal interventions associated with the direct or the indirect mechanism depend on: (a) the coverage level of the public transit network; (b) the public transit adoption target; and (c) the relative strength of commuter preferences between driving and taking public transit. Second, we show that the direct mechanism cannot be budget-neutral without undermining commuter welfare. However, when the public transit adoption target is not too aggressive, we find that the indirect mechanism can increase both commuter welfare and sales to the private-sector partner while remaining budget-neutral. Finally, we show that, although the indirect mechanism restricts the scope of government intervention (by eliminating the congestion fee), it can dominate the direct mechanism by leaving all stakeholders better off, especially when the adoption target is modest. Managerial implications: Our findings offer cost-effective prescriptions for improving urban mobility and public transit ridership.

Making the Links between Ride-hailing and Public Transit Ridership: Impacts in Medium and Large Colombian Cities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Scholl ◽  
Felipe Bedoya-Maya ◽  
Orlando Sabogal-Cardona ◽  
Daniel Oviedo
Keyword(s):  
Public Transportation ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
Transport Systems ◽  
Transit Service ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Transit Ridership ◽  
Key Policy ◽  
In Transit

As transit ridership continues to fall in many cities across the globe, key policy debates continue around whether Uber and other ride-hailing services are contributing to this trend. This research explores the effects of the introduction of ride-hailing to Colombian cities on public transportation ridership using Ubers timeline as case study. We test the hypothesis that ride-hailing may either substitute or compete with public transit, particularly in cities with large transit service gaps in coverage or quality. Our analysis builds on historic transit ridership data from national authorities and uses a staggered difference-in-difference model that accounts for fixed effects, seasonality, socioeconomic controls, and the presence of integrated transport systems. Despite large reductions in transit ridership in most cities, our results suggest that Uber is not statistically associated with the observed drop in ridership. Moreover, consistent with evidence from previous research, public transit reforms implemented between 2007 and 2015 throughout Colombian cities appear to have contributed substantially to the declines in transit ridership observed across the country. Findings in this paper inform policy-targeted insights and contribute to current debates of the links between ride-hailing and public transit in cities in Latin America.

Who, What, When, and Where

2015 ◽  
Vol 2537 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Legrain ◽  
Ron Buliung ◽  
Ahmed M. El-Geneidy
Keyword(s):  
Public Transportation ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Transit Service ◽  
Transit Ridership ◽  
Mode Share ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Transit Use ◽  
In Transit ◽  
Transportation Agencies

Public transportation agencies are faced with the difficult task of providing adequate service during peak travel periods while maintaining adequate service for those traveling off-peak or outside a city or region's densest areas. The ability or inability of a transit system to meet these needs helps explain transit ridership rates. This research sought to understand how daily fluctuations in transit service were related to ridership in the greater Toronto and Hamilton area, in Canada, for different segments of the labor force. Many variables—including frequency and proximity of transit service, socioeconomic status, the built environment, and accessibility to employment through transit—have been linked to transit use in past research. However, many previous studies focused only on travel during peak hours. This study investigated whether fluctuations in service and demand were related to transit ridership rates. With the use of six time periods, an improved understanding of daily variation in transit mode share for commuting trips was produced. With a further division of the commuting population into two employment wage categories, it was demonstrated that the common understanding of the influences on transit ridership was potentially misleading. Commuting transit mode share and the variables that influence it are intimately related to when travel is needed and to what jobs people are traveling. To encourage transit use, agencies and researchers need to take into account commuters’ need to commute at a variety of time periods.

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