Transit Ridership Growth in Small Urbanized Areas: Lessons from Seven US Transit Systems
Publication: Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 148, Issue 1
Abstract
This study examines seven small urbanized areas (UZAs) in the United States where public transit ridership increased between 2005 and 2017 in order to identify lessons for other similarly situated communities and to advance understanding of these largely overlooked transit environments. Based on hour-long phone interviews of transit leaders in these seven communities, the study reveals that these agencies have been proactively reaching out to their community members and protecting their local reputations, making smart, data-driven incremental service improvements tailored to meet the needs of their communities, and have relied extensively on partnerships with major activity centers (universities, employers, and the like) to grow their rider markets. So far, these strategies have been successful in these seven UZAs, although they continue to face the same kinds of challenges to transit use that are faced by the bigger city peers.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are proprietary or confidential in nature and may only be provided with restrictions. (The data consist of interview notes from which identifying information is removed for confidentiality reasons.)
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 148 • Issue 1 • March 2022
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 6, 2021
Accepted: Jun 18, 2021
Published online: Oct 21, 2021
Published in print: Mar 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Mar 21, 2022
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