Recent Decline in Public Transportation Ridership: Analysis, Causes, and Responses (2022) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 100-117
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From page 100... ...
100 11.1 Findings from the Research Taken as a whole, the research presented in this report shows that a mix of factors are contributing to recent transit ridership trends, pushing transit ridership in competing directions. This chapter gives strategies for transit agencies to increase ridership and mitigate or stem declines in ridership based on the key findings from this research.
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Strategies, Implementation Resources, and Key Lessons Learned 101 substantial BRT features increased ridership significantly (potentially between 22% to 46%) per year.
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102 Recent Decline in Public Transportation Ridership: Analysis, Causes, and Responses 11.1.2 Redesign Fare Policy The system-level analysis shows that fare increases resulted in 0% to 4% lower bus ridership and 2% to 5% lower rail ridership from 2012 to 2018. As fares increase, transit becomes less competitive with other modes, resulting in lower ridership.
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From page 103... ...
Strategies, Implementation Resources, and Key Lessons Learned 103 system-level analysis, the research team found that metro areas have become slightly less centralized in the past decade, partially offsetting gains in ridership due to population and employment, so that the combined effect of land use changes is a less than 2% increase in ridership. Transit agencies can do their part to improve densities near transit stations through transit-oriented development, but regional partnerships are critically important to ensure that transit-oriented density is occurring with regional growth in areas that are already supported by transit or could easily be supported by transit as growth occurs.
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104 Recent Decline in Public Transportation Ridership: Analysis, Causes, and Responses suggests that agencies should at the very least conduct an internal reflection on pursuing a mobility management mission and assess its benefits, costs, and impacts. Although beyond the scope of this research, experiences during the pandemic have highlighted the importance of equity as a major concern in how transit service is designed and delivered.
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Strategies, Implementation Resources, and Key Lessons Learned 105 (MPOs) , local governments, transit agencies, and states -- in anticipating and planning for shared mobility as part of a higher-performing regional multimodal transportation system.
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106 Recent Decline in Public Transportation Ridership: Analysis, Causes, and Responses agency, or is the goal to build up the image of the transit agency within the community and highlight its community brand? The choice of strategy could lead to potentially different types and numbers of fare discounts.
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From page 107... ...
Strategies, Implementation Resources, and Key Lessons Learned 107 11.4.2 Key Implementation Resources and References for Fare Discounts and Policies • Volinski, 2012, TCRP Synthesis 101: Implementation and Outcomes of Fare-Free Transit Systems, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, https://doi.org/10.17226/22753 This report highlights the experiences of public transit agencies that have planned, implemented, and operated fare-free transit systems. The report focuses on public transit agencies that are either direct recipients or subrecipients of federal transit grants and that furnish fare-free services to everyone in a service area on every mode provided.
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From page 108... ...
108 Recent Decline in Public Transportation Ridership: Analysis, Causes, and Responses Transit agencies can only implement physical priority measures and TSP in cooperation with the traffic engineers who manage traffic signals and the design and operation of streets; and the design and implementation of BRT and LRT systems are by their nature major, complex, multiyear undertakings. The following are some key implementation lessons to consider, focusing more on shorter-term strategies.
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Strategies, Implementation Resources, and Key Lessons Learned 109 11.5.1.5 Develop Multitiered Communications Strategy to Engage Riders and Address Concerns of Local Merchants Implementation of priority measures may be resisted by local affected merchants and auto users, and municipal traffic staff and politicians are very sensitive to the complaints this may generate. Therefore, it is critical to have a multitiered communications strategy that serves three different objectives: • Engage the active support of the transit users who will benefit from the measures.
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From page 110... ...
110 Recent Decline in Public Transportation Ridership: Analysis, Causes, and Responses over time in order to obtain and maintain the necessary public and political support as well as funding from many sources. Experts have suggested that coalition-building skills may be more important at the outset of a project, while technical expertise may become more important later on during the project, once it has been approved and moves into the technical design phases.
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Strategies, Implementation Resources, and Key Lessons Learned 111 different branding to complete and sophisticated full BRT systems operating on their own rightof-way and using an array of technological enhancements, becoming similar to LRT in many respects. Several resources and reports provide practical guidance on the design and implementation of BRT systems, including the following: • National BRT Institute, https://nbrti.org/ According to the National BRT Institute, "The mission of the National BRT Institute is to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and innovation for increasing speed, efficiency, and reliability of high-capacity bus service through the implementation of BRT systems in the United States." • Levinson et al., 2003, TCRP Report 90: Bus Rapid Transit Volume 2: Implementation Guidelines, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, https://doi.org/10.17226/21947 This report discusses the main components of BRT and describes BRT concepts, planning considerations, and key issues as well as the system development process, desirable conditions for BRT, and general planning principles.
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112 Recent Decline in Public Transportation Ridership: Analysis, Causes, and Responses • Van Der Bijl, R., and Van Oort, N., 2018, Light Rail Transit Systems: 61 Lessons in Sustainable Urban Development, Elsevier This book shows how to design and operate light rail to maximize its social benefits and how to understand the value of light rail and tactics on its effective integration into communities. Readers will learn how to develop important relationships with local decision makers and communities.
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Strategies, Implementation Resources, and Key Lessons Learned 113 11.6.1.3 Consider All Alternatives and Carefully Model Business Impacts As a result of the aforementioned reasons, all possible alternatives should be considered to address the problem or opportunity of interest, and care must be taken in assessing the potential benefits, costs, and related operational, organizational, and institutional challenges in order to define the type of partnership that is desired. 11.6.1.4 Regulatory Compliance Is a Major Issue in Negotiations with TNCs Partnerships with different shared-use mobility providers will raise different types of concerns.
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114 Recent Decline in Public Transportation Ridership: Analysis, Causes, and Responses FTA's MOD Sandbox Program provides a venue through which integrated MOD concepts and solutions -- supported through local partnerships -- are demonstrated in real-world settings. The objectives of FTA's MOD Sandbox Program are to: – Enhance transit industry preparedness for MOD.
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From page 115... ...
Strategies, Implementation Resources, and Key Lessons Learned 115 • TCRP J-11/Task 37: Transit and Micro-Mobility (Bikeshare, Scooter-share, etc.) , https:// apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?
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From page 116... ...
116 Recent Decline in Public Transportation Ridership: Analysis, Causes, and Responses 11.7.1.3 Build Ongoing Partnership with Municipal Planners to Develop Zoning and Shape Development Through Review of Development Plans and Important Building Permits Transit-oriented communities are created not only through the adoption of broad planning visions in official long-term municipal plans, but also through the detailed zoning that governs development and the case-by-case permitting of developments and building permits, which are the responsibility of municipal planners. Not all transit agencies participate or even have a voice in the development process, whether it be in the drafting of zoning and other regulations or in the review of major developments.
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From page 117... ...
Strategies, Implementation Resources, and Key Lessons Learned 117 11.8 Future Transit Ridership Impacts Over the past year, the transit industry has been hit by what may be its biggest challenge to date: a pandemic that uniformly discourages close proximity between people, which transit depends on to be the most spatially efficient mode. Across cities, the research team saw significant declines in rail ridership, as rail modes are often used by workers that have work-fromhome options.
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