Nonurbanized Public Transportation Needs Assessment

The ability to predict the demand for rural intracounty public transportation has become increasingly important in recent years. In this study, an attempt was made to predict the future intracounty public transportation ridership demand in rural Nebraska. Existing and historical transit operating and socioeconomic and demographic data were collected for the counties and cities in Nebraska that have rural transportation services. This information was used to develop a series of equations for predicting the future ridership demand in rural areas with or without existing public transportation services. Two equations were developed for estimating the ridership demand for counties and cities that currently do not have any public transportation services. One equation for estimating ridership demand was developed for each of the counties and cities that currently have transit services. According to the ridership demand projections made in this study, it seems that the existing intracounty public transportation systems in rural Nebraska are providing sufficient services to meet the present and future demand in most rural areas.