Can better connections increase transitway ridership?

lightrail crossing

A transitway trip is more than just the leg spent on light rail or bus rapid transit (BRT). It also includes the modes used to reach transitway stations, such as local buses, walking, and biking. Transit planners need to understand how the connections between modes affect ridership as they plan network changes and expansions.

A recent U of M project helps fill this information need. “We explored how Twin Cities transit users choose to reach transitway stations, and how they choose their paths through the transit system itself,” says Professor Yingling Fan of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, the principal investigator.

Plans for the Twin Cities transitway system include extending existing light-rail lines and adding new BRT lines. Some new lines will lead to new right-of-way acquisition and the potential for development around station areas, which in turn could shape the types of modes used to access the system. 

“This research provides important perspectives on the customer value of transitway connections by mode, informing effective transit planning to transitways,” says Adam Harrington, director of service development with Metro Transit.

For their work, researchers used mode choice modeling to investigate how Twin Cities riders plan their access to transitway stations. Mode choices considered were walking, regular bus, driving, drop-off, biking, and taxi or transportation network company (e.g., Uber or Lyft). 

They found that transitway riders consistently choose their access mode based on distance and time and that the overwhelming majority of transitway users walk to a station. “We also found that women are more likely to view biking negatively than men do,” says Alireza Khani, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering and the study’s co-investigator. “This may indicate barriers to bike usage compared to other modes.” In addition, women participants viewed driving more positively than men did.

Then, the research team combined several algorithms to analyze how riders choose the path they take during their transit trip—the shortest path, a perceived shortest path, or neither. “We found that users primarily choose the path that minimizes their total travel time, which, in most cases, is the same as the fewest transfers,” Khani says. “We also found few back-up options if one path is unavailable.”

boarding station stats

In addition to these Twin Cities-based analyses, the research team carried out a ridership analysis using data from 341 transitway stations at 16 designated peer regions across the United States. This analysis focused on estimating how the quality of bus, bicycle, and pedestrian connections to transitways affect station-level ridership.

“One finding stands out: higher-quality bus connections at transitway stations produce higher ridership at those stations,” Fan says. “A high-amenity bus transit center attracts more riders, for example, than a curbside connection a block or two away.” The study could not determine if better bike or pedestrian connections would create more transit trips due to a lack of nationally consistent data, she adds.

Recommendations from the research team include:

  • Locate new transitway stations so that they intersect corridors with high transit demand and high levels of connecting bus service.
  • Plan local bus service to provide convenient, direct service to transitway stations.
  • Improve walkability to transitway stations, and improve bike access and infrastructure.
  • Develop detailed, accurate, standardized data on pedestrian and bicycle systems.

The study was sponsored by the Transitway Impacts Research Program.

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Michael McCarthy
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