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From page 37... ... Introduction Identifying strategies, actions, and initiatives that can cost-effectively increase an agency's ridership thus require the agency to identify and understand (1) the nature of the external factors affecting demand, (2) Read the entire page →
From page 38... ... 38 Elements Needed to Create High Ridership Transit Systems of environments, the following categories can be used to further define many agencies' services: • Metropolitan -- Service (often more than one mode) covers multiple types of settings within a metropolitan area; examples include agencies such as Chicago Transit Authority, MiamiDade Transit Agency, and Denver Regional Transit District. Read the entire page →
From page 39... ... • Balanced mixed use suburbs typically feature a mixture of housing, employment and commercial land uses. • Suburban campuses, which proliferated during the 1980's, mainly comprise office parks, industrial estates, and low-density business centers. Read the entire page →
From page 40... ... 40 Elements Needed to Create High Ridership Transit Systems – Subscription buses, and – Vanpools. Table 4-1 identifies which of these types of actions are appropriate for each of the six suburban categories. Read the entire page →
From page 41... ... Selection of Strategies 41 • Incorporate supporting/complementary elements. Recommendations included expansion of the guaranteed-ride-home and employer-subsidized transit pass programs, as well as improvements for pedestrians and accommodations for bicycles. Read the entire page →
From page 42... ... 42 Elements Needed to Create High Ridership Transit Systems invariably face a certain level of natural attrition of ridership, losing regular riders who move to a new city, change jobs (and can no longer use transit to commute) , graduate from school, buy cars, or otherwise stop using transit on a regular basis. Read the entire page →
From page 43... ... Selection of Strategies 43 introduce a new low-priced pass -- in an effort to attract riders, budget constraints may prohibit consideration of such an option. Similarly, the ridership growth resulting from a service expansion must be weighed against the increased costs. Read the entire page →
From page 44... ... 44 Elements Needed to Create High Ridership Transit Systems • Previous research -- Ridership trends over the past several years were reviewed for the examples presented in earlier studies of ridership strategies. Just over a third of the agencies considered were able to produce at least as much ridership growth between 1999 and 2003 as they had in 1994–1996. Read the entire page →
From page 45... ... Selection of Strategies 45 using partnership/coordination, 28% using marketing/promotional, and 21% using fare collection/structure projects. – Among the small areas, operating/service adjustments and partnership/coordination initiatives were each utilized by roughly half of the agencies; 21% used partnership/ coordination initiatives and only 11% deployed fare collection/structure initiatives. Read the entire page →
From page 46... ... 46 Elements Needed to Create High Ridership Transit Systems route coverage (22 projects) ; these were followed by route restructuring (16 projects) Read the entire page →
From page 47... ... Selection of Strategies 47 • In the medium urban area category, the agency with the highest increase (PARTA in Kent, OH) reported operating/service adjustments only, while the agency with the second highest gain (CATA in Lansing, MI) Read the entire page →
From page 48... ... 48 Elements Needed to Create High Ridership Transit Systems Relationship between Geography/Population Change and Ridership The geographical distribution of the highest gaining agencies (i.e., 10% or greater growth over the 4-year period) differs markedly for the three area size categories: • In the large urban areas, the high growth agencies are, as might be expected, concentrated in the West Coast, South, and mid-Atlantic regions: 9 of the 21 agencies are on the West Coast (primarily Southern California) Read the entire page →
From page 49... ... Selection of Strategies 49 saw lower levels of usage: 10 agencies used partnership/coordination initiatives, 7 used marketing/promotional initiatives, and 5 fare collection/structure initiatives; 10 of these agencies deployed two or more types of strategies, and 4 each used three or more types. While operating/service adjustments predominated in this group, however, the agency with by far the highest per capita ridership used only a fare collection strategy (the elimination of fares) Read the entire page →
From page 50... ... 50 Elements Needed to Create High Ridership Transit Systems in a particular service environment: 9 of the 10 highest levels among the small urban/rural agencies (see Table 4-9) , as well as 3 of the 5 highest levels among medium urban agencies (see Table 4-8) Read the entire page →
From page 51... ... Selection of Strategies 51 Factors Influencing High Ridership A range of elements contributes to the high transit mode share abroad, and certain factors relate to an underlying physical, economic, and political environment favoring transit that are simply not present in most U.S. cities. Read the entire page →

From page 37...

... Introduction Identifying strategies, actions, and initiatives that can cost-effectively increase an agency's ridership thus require the agency to identify and understand (1) the nature of the external factors affecting demand, (2)